King of the Ghost Zone
by 1337kitsune
Summary: They were dead. He had no one left. No one. Wait...there was Vlad, wasn't there? He would understand what had happened... Right? But...wasn't that how HE was born? No... NO! HE PROMISED! He promised he would never turn into- Yet...the ones he promised are gone. Dead. So...did his promise still count even? Was he...was he going to-
1. Prologue

**Danny Phantom – King of the Ghost Zone**

**x**

_Prologue_

_x_

Dead. Gone. Vanished. No longer here. All of them had now been erased from this plane of existence...all of them were dead. And all of it was his fault too. Or... Was it his fault? No. It wasn't really, I mean, he was the hero! He saved people! So...it couldn't have been his fault! Right...right?

Danny let out another morose and shaky sigh while staring at the last few minutes of the setting sun. Ethereal tendrils of pure white ghost energy seemed to be surrounding him as he watched from his favorite place atop the roof of the mansion he was now living in. It was the only place he had left where he could be himself, where he could let everything go and pretend nothing was wrong. Even if it _was_ only for a few seconds at a time.

Of course, after those few seconds ended...everything came back to him. With starling accuracy. All of his closest friends, and not-so closest friends, his weird and crazy family who he wouldn't change for the world, heck, even his _teacher_! All of them were now gone. He had been the only one to be left behind... How ironic, considering he was the one who had always been half-dead...

The raven-haired teen quickly bit his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. He had to control the pain he felt as the memories resurfaced...he couldn't let his chaotic thoughts take control of his powers again! The last time, and only time if Danny had his way, the one taking care of him had gotten hurt. He didn't want to be the cause of another death to a loved one...not again. After all, the man had done so well to take care of him after...after what had happened to the others...

Sometimes he could remember everything with perfect clarity, and other times it was just vague blurs and sounds. He did remember one thing that he was sure he would never forget though...that horrible explosion... It hadn't even been his fault this time! Not really...after all, he hadn't even known what had been going on, he had been across town, asleep! How could he have known what would have happened...he didn't even get a chance to try and save them...

Vlad had told him it wasn't his fault of course. He said it would have happened no matter what the teen had done, or tried to do. Danny had listed as the elder tried to comfort him, to tell him that none of it was his fault and he shouldn't think that it was... That still didn't make Danny feel any less guilty about the matter though. He was supposed to have been the hero of Amity Park, and he hadn't even been able to protect his loved ones. The ones that had always kept him going through his crazy half-dead teenage life.

The halfa glared back out at the sun as it started setting. The ending of yet another day without the ones he cared for. He knew he couldn't keep this up forever... Grief. Depression. Anger. Hate. Rage. Sorrow. All of these emotions were sure to drive him mad if they continued...but he just couldn't help it! After all, with them gone...he was sure to turn into something he had sworn to never be.

Why had all this happened to him? To him of all people! He was a half-ghost teenager who protected the town and got beat up daily by people who hadn't even known his secret! He had enough confusion and drama going on in his life without it all going up into smoke...literally... Was this retribution for something he did wrong? If it was...then he wished he just knew what he had done to warrant it...

He was supposed to have stopped that explosion from happening after all. He had changed it...changed _history_...then he had sworn that he would _never _let himself turn into what had caused the explosion...so what happened now? He was right back on the path to becoming Dan...he was even staying at his arch-rival's, just like his alternate-self had done...

Danny sighed before gazing at the twilight that was quickly turning into dusk. His sigh ended with him glaring as he felt his ghost sense go off again. Why did that man even bother...he should have just given up on the teen already, nothing the man could do would help the boy...the boy who knew what was to happen, and also knew that nothing the man could or would do would help him.

This wasn't supposed to have happened! He and Clockwork had fixed everything! Hadn't they? Or...

_Nice try Jazz. But me, my future, I'm inevitable..._

_You don't get it, do ya? I'm still here. __**I**__still__**exist**__!__That means__**you**__...still turn into__**me**__..._

All of them were dead and gone, and it was all his fault too. The hero's fault that he hadn't stopped the death of all those he held dear...no...it wasn't his fault... It was _his, _wasn't it? After all, he was the hero, and the hero always saved the day! So he couldn't have been the one to kill them...right? That was right...wasn't it?

"Oh Daniel..." Danny didn't even bother to acknowledge the man behind him. He had heard all of his explanations before. It wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. They wouldn't want you acting like you are now. Staying like this won't help anybody. Vlad just didn't understand! But... He had lost dear ones in that fire too, hadn't he?

Just whose fault was this mess...


	2. Averge Ordinary Day

**Chapter One**

Zzz...

Zz...

Zzz...

"_MR. FENTON!" _The loud snap of wood hitting a sturdy desk sounded throughout the classroom, waking up the teens who had been in a dazed stupor. An angry and livid teacher, the one who had caused the stupor-induced teens, stood over one sleepy, and now scared, looking teenager in particular.

"Sorry!" The teenager spoke the reflexive and expected answer of him as he ran a hand through his unruly black hair, which looked even wilder then it usually did. This of course caused most of the class around him to break out into poorly concealed giggles and laughs. Only a select few who felt sorry for the teen resisted laughing at his misfortune, his two best friends among them.

"Now, as I was _saying_," the over-weight teacher muttered darkly to himself before walking back up to his desk, placing his hands behind his back in a professional manner as he did so "Tomorrow your essays on Lord of the Flies are due. You've had a week, so no excuses for not turning one in," here the teacher glanced back specifically at the black-haired teen he had startled awake, hearing a dull swallow of fear from said teen.

"Now... For a last-minute Pop Quiz!" The sudden announcement had the whole class groaning in annoyance. Mr. Lancer was one of the many teachers who loved springing pop quizzes on their uneducated minds, and often at that. A sudden and harsh ringing throughout the halls and classrooms however made the students internally cheer. That sound could only be for one thing, the end of the school day. Which meant no sudden pop quizzes from Lancer!

"_Grapes of Wrath people_! Calm down!" Mr. Lancer shouted as the students rushed out of the room, a few opting to take the windows even. The other students sometimes questioned the ones who were crazy enough to do that, but since Mr. Lancer and the other teachers had as of yet to stop them, they just ignored it.

"Man Danny, Mr. Lancer _really_ has it out for you this year," an African-American teen muttered from his place beside the black-haired boy who had been yelled at earlier. Both teens were walking down the people-filled halls while on the look out for their unique goth ultra-recycle-vegetarian friend. They were sure that they would find her, even _if _there were around a hundred teens racing for the doors to get free.

"Don't remind me," the teen groaned in response while the two finally spotted and joined up with said black-haired, goth-looking girl. The girl was currently rummaging around in her spider backpack for something, looking distinctly murderous as a few more strands of her hair fell out of her classic half-pony tail. With her, the boys reasoned, that girl could be looking _anything_, although, there was a high chance of it being something dangerous.

"Can you believe her! She's such a little-" the girl cut herself off as the trio passed by a few teachers lingering in the halls. The teachers who were always hoping to assign a few last-minute detentions, and none of the trio of friends really felt up to getting in trouble for cursing out the most popular girl in school. As much as it _killed_ the female of the group to admit it.

"Let us guess, Paulina?" the two boys asked at the same time, in unison, while sharing a smirk. The girl nodded why muttering something distinctly rude under her breathe, cause the dark-haired boy to just sigh in a slightly amused manner before shaking his head, as if he had heard all of this before.

"Sam, why won't you just forgive her for that accident?"

"Danny! That was no accident!" the girl who had been addressed as Sam finally spoke up, looking eager to have a chance to rant to the two boys about her hate for that preppy popular A-lister. Both boys now had a look on their faces as if they had heard the rant many times before, and knowing their friend, they were likely to hear it many times more, "She purposely switched my hair dye at that stupid and pointless fundraiser to make my hair pink! _PINK_ DANNY! _**PINK**_!"

"Well...it could have been permanent," the dark-skinned boy finally spoke up while messing with his new and even more high-tech PDA. He smirked and glanced up at the only girl who would willingly befriend him, getting nothing but harsh mutterings in return for his comment. He couldn't make them out very well due to how softly she was speaking, although he could have sworn he heard the words _shallow-girl_ and _boy stealer._

"Relax Sam, at least your hair isn't pink anymore, besides, a few years from now you may laugh at it! Especially since Tuck got pictures of the whole thing," the raven-haired boy, Danny, tried his best to calm their female friend down. It seemed to be slightly working, especially since she hadn't heard the last part of his sentence, causing Tucker to hold in snickers unsuccessfully.

The three continued walking down the stairs that led to the school while shouldering their bags full of last-minute homework. The other students around them were cheering louder than usual. And why shouldn't they? It was a warmer day than most, meaning the onset of summer, not to mention that there was only one more week of school. After that it was a long three-month summer vacation of freedom!

"Easy for you guys to say, you didn't have to scrub you hair for two days straight to get all the damn pink out," Sam continued to grumble to herself while Danny yawned mid-laugh at his friend's ranting. The two teens walking beside him noticed, and both became slightly concerned.

"Dude, what is with you lately?" Tucker asked while looking up from his PDA, "You've been passing out in _every_ class, and more than usual! And don't even try to blame the ghosts, there haven't been too many the past week. In fact...I think the last ghost you fought was _more _then a week ago!"

Danny's two friends _knew_ it couldn't be from the ghosts. The news lately had been full of nothing but of how Amity Park had seen less and less ghosts all thanks to the ghost teen hero Danny Phantom. Said hero was in fact half-ghost however, the human half being the nerdy wimp Danny Fenton. No one except a few chosen people knew that last part though.

"I know, I know," Danny mumbled while the two watched his body tilt to one side dangerously. It would have been funnier if they weren't sure he was actually going to fall down. Feeling his friends worried gazes, and finally realizing what what was happening, Danny quickly righted his posture, "I've just been practicing using my powers too much with Clockwork lately..."

"Clockwork?" Sam asked while looking surprised, she hadn't known Danny had been seeing him lately. Well, seeing him more then usual. It wasn't that she didn't trust the Master of all Time or anything...she just harbored some sore feelings for him after trying to behead Danny with that scythe of his. The whole, _I-knew-what-was-going-on-but-didn't-feel-like-telling-you_ thing he had going on was pretty vexing as well.

"Yeah, he's been helping me train my powers lately and learn about the ghost zone, you know, stuff like that," Danny trailed off while almost falling over again. Luckily Tucker was able to catch him and hold him up, Sam trying to hide her smile at just _how _tired Danny was. She was also a little worried, but...come on, who can't laugh at their friend almost falling over from exhaustion?

"Not to sound like Jazz, but you really shouldn't be pushing yourself this much man, you're gonna end up hurting yourself at this rate," Tucker complained while helping Danny stand up straight, "Not to mention you're gonna be hurting my back," the teen added on before finally letting go of Danny once he was sure the teen wasn't going to fall over.

"Yeah, I can't _believe_ I'm saying this, but I agree with Tucker," at this Tucker shot her a slightly hurt and dirty look. Sam simply smirked and continued talking, "If you keep pushing yourself like this you're really gonna get hurt, like falling asleep during a ghost attack!"

"Oh come on guys, it's not that bad," Danny waved his hand in front of his face as if he was swatting the question itself away. The other two just looked at each other before Sam raised an eyebrow and Tucker rolled his eyes in response. Not that bad? Yeah right. He was about to fall asleep on the sidewalk.

"Maybe you could try managing your time?" Tucker half-asked and half-suggested while a wisp of cold air suddenly floated out of the half-ghost's mouth, curling around itself before disappearing into the air.

"_BEWARE!_ I AM THE-"

"Yeah yeah," Danny muttered before cutting off the portly blue-tinted ghost and rummaging in his bag for the Fenton Thermos he had learned to always keep handy, "Dang, left it in my locker, Sam?" Well, usually kept handy.

"What would you do without us," Sam smirked while handing Danny her own thermos, earning a sleepy smile and chuckle in return.

"Thanks," Danny let out another half-yawn before aiming the thermos at the box ghost and sucking the complaining ghost in. The other two had not even bothered to to comment or say anything, after all, it _was _onlythe box ghost, "Now, where were we?"

"Tucker was saying you should try managing your time so you don't turn up to school every day looking like a living zombie, or an _actual_ ghost," Sam replied, looking stern at the last part of her comment while Danny just rolled his eyes in response.

"Yeah, last time we tried that I was almost captured, killed, and skinned to be a pelt on some maniac hunter's wall. Any of that ring a bell, Tuck?"

"Minor issues, besides, this time it would work," Tucker complained, looking slightly offended at the accusation of Skulker's hunting, and almost capture, being his fault.

"Right," Sam muttered, "Cause your plans always work _so_ well."

"Hey-" Tucker shouted back, only to be cutoff when they heard something heavy hitting the ground. It was a slightly muffled sound, as if the thing that hit the ground was soft and light instead of hard and heavy. Not even looking back the duo sighed in annoyance, "He fell over, didn't he?"

"Yep," Sam replied while turning around and settling her hands on her hip, looking at Danny who was now curled up on the sidewalk like a little kid, fast asleep, "Tucker, it's your turn to carry him."

"What? I thought it was your turn to carry him!" Tucker complained while carefully placing his PDA in his backpack before straightening his red beret, which he never would get rid of. He than slowly and reluctantly handed his backpack off to a waiting Sam with a heavy sigh.

"No, it's yours. I did it after Technus threw him into that wall, remember?" Sam explained while helping Tucker maneuver Danny onto the slightly older teen's back, who was still complaining about having to carry his best friend.

"Wow, maybe him being part ghost really does make him weigh less..." Tucker muttered while finally stopping his complaining, he was supporting Danny as he and Sam continued on towards the younger teen's home. It was none other than the famous, or sometime infamous depending on how it was viewed, Fenton Works.

"What do you mean? He should still weigh the normal amount for a sixteen-year-old," Sam muttered in response, her eyes slightly narrowing in confusion and worry while Tucker rolled his own eyes before turning his head to look over at her.

"Yeah he _should_, but he _doesn't_, didn't you notice it the last time you helped carry him home?"

"Well, yeah, but I thought it was just where he was still in ghost mode," Sam muttered while looking over at her best friend with obvious concern, "That time he weighed almost less than he did when he went into the portal! You don't think there's something wrong with him... Do you?"

"Maybe... It could be from the effect the ectoplasm had on his DNA, but we'd have to do tests to make sure. And even than we would have to ask ghost experts what it means. We'll just have to wait till he wakes up to interrogate him though," Tucker grunted while trying to shift Danny upwards a little more so the teen didn't fall off his back, "Sam... Little help?"

"Fine," Sam muttered while rolling her eyes and smirking, adjusting Danny's precarious position. She than quickly placed a hand on the half-ghost's back so he didn't move or fall over anymore.

"Woo, thanks, hey, there's Fenton Works!" Tucker exclaimed, Sam chuckling at how happy he sounded now that he could stop carrying his best friend. He may not have been as heavy as he should, but he was _still_ heavy.

"Jazz, Danny's home!" Tucker and Sam both yelled at the same time, as they usually did. Tucker got the honors of kicking the door to Fenton Works open this time. Sam smirked at the behavior before throwing the spare key they kept back under the welcome mat, for times such as these.

"And why isn't Danny telling me this himself?" a voice that sounded as if she already knew the answer asked from the second level of the house. Sam and Tucker smirked as Danny's older sister came down the stairs, long orange hair pulled up into a messy and loose pony while a small smile was on her face, "Passed out again?"

"Again?" the two teens asked with a raised brow while Tucker let Danny down gently onto the couch. The elder teen than quickly began stretching his back out, the two girls hearing a large snap before Tucker stood up straight again. This just caused the girls to roll their eyes and smirk at Tucker's over-theatrical nature.

"Yes, again. He falls asleep at the oddest of times due to not getting enough sleep, I think I finally convinced Mom and Dad it's just a case of minor narcolepsy and they shouldn't worry too much... Although, he might _really_ have narcolepsy..." the girl named Jazz explained while trailing off, all the while moving around the couch to throw the thick wool blanket hanging on the back of the couch over Danny.

The trio smiled to themselves when said teen stretched his arms and back out before rolling over on to his side so he could snuggle into the thick blanket better. The end result of this was him looking very much like a little kid.

"I'm so getting a picture of this," Tucker snickered quietly while pulling out his PDA and turning on the camera function, quickly snapping a few pictures of the moment. This just caused the girls to roll their eyes once again at the the boy's antics.

"Thanks for carrying him home guys," Jazz said sincerely while walking into the kitchen before coming back out with a plate full of chocolate chip cookies.

"No problem, it's not like we could just leave him there on the sidewalk," Sam smirked before taking one of Jazz's cookies. Danny may make the best fudge in this world or the ghost zone, but no one could beat Jazz's cookie-making skills. It was something many had tried to do, although none succeeded.

"Especially since we can always look forwards to these babies," Tucker smiled hugely before reaching for a cookie, only to be stopped by Jazz's stern look and frown.

"Delete the pictures, then you get your cookie."

"Wha-?" Tucker whined, causing Sam to snicker behind her hand while chewing on her own cookie. It was even more delicious after carrying Danny home and having to put up with peppy Paulina all day.

"Better hurry Tuck, they're only getting colder," Sam taunted, causing Jazz to smirk. Tucker looked down at his PDA then back towards the cookies, all the while debating on what to do. He looked back and forth between the two some more before his gaze finally landed back on his PDA. It was either blackmail against Danny, or Jazz's out-of-this-world/realm cookies...

"Fine," Tucker grumbled before pulling out the small pen and making eliciting some noises from the machine, a beep sounding in confirmation of the deleted pictures he had taken. Jazz looked at the screen, pulling up the trash and recent folders and made sure they were really gone before she handed him two large cookies.

"Very good," Jazz almost laughed at how dejected Tucker looked while biting into a cookie. That quickly changed though, considering how happy the cookie had made him. Sam herself had no qualms about laughing, only she did it quietly since Danny was still asleep on the couch.

"Hey Jazz, did you know Danny was seeing Clockwork?" Sam asked slowly after her laughing fit subsided, glancing back at the still-sleeping Danny as she asked. Sam only looked back at the teen's older sister when she heard a dejected sigh.

"I just found out about it last night when he came through the portal looking like an _actual_ ghost," Jazz sighed yet again, remembering how tired and depleted of energy Danny had been. She figured he still was if he had fallen asleep on the sidewalk, "I wouldn't let him go up to his room to sleep, or even let him leave the lab, until he told me where he had been and what he had been up to."

"He didn't just phase upstairs into his room?" Tucker asked while looking surprised.

"No, she probably just threatened to use the Fenton Thermos on him," Sam smirked at the guilty look that crossed Jazz's face, "Told ya."

"Well, I was worried! He looked half-dead, oh, you know what I mean," Jazz muttered at seeing the expression on the two's faces at the elder's choice of words.

"Yeah... I just hope he gets better soon," Tucker muttered in a depressed tone before biting into another cookie from the plate on the small coffee table in front of them.

"Geez Tucker, how many cookies have you had already, five?" Sam asked in astonishment while looking at the half-empty plate, causing Jazz to roll her eyes in exasperation. Honestly, Danny and his friends...

"No, this makes number six," Tucker snickered before taking his backpack from Sam and rummaging around in it, "Speaking of Danny looking half-dead, we gotta go empty this thing, I'm surprised there was even room for the Box Ghost in here..."

"You guys fought the Box Ghost, in his condition?" Jazz asked, looking slightly worried until Tucker and Sam shared a look before scoffing and rolling their eyes.

"If you can call it that," Sam muttered with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, he just shouted _beware_ before Danny sucked him into the thermos, no going ghost required," Tucker finished while heading towards the basement door in the kitchen, munching on yet another cookie. Sam was really curious on just how many of those Tucker could eat before getting sick...

"Well, it _was_ just the Box Ghost," Sam replied while Jazz nodded her head in understanding, all worry gone after hearing what had happened. She should have known he was fine if it was the Box Ghost he was facing.

"So why is he passed out asleep than?" Jazz asked while the trio walked down the basement steps, taking care not to be too loud since said half-ghost was passed out in the room just across from the kitchen.

"He just passed out while we were walking down the street," Sam replied, looking a little worried herself as Tucker fiddled with the equipment and portal controls before emptying the thermos. The three of them could have sworn they heard a fading _Beware!_ as the portal doors closed.

"Well, I'm sure he'll wake up soon," Jazz mumbled, mostly to herself, while biting one of her nails in slight worry. The elder quickly noticed what she was doing and stopped.

"Especially since you left the cookies right beside him, you know he loves your cookies, almost more than I do," Tucker laughed to himself while Sam rolled her eyes. Jazz was also slightly cheered up, all three knew how much Danny loved Jazz's cookies. It had always been the one thing that cheered him up when he was little, still did after a particularly hard battle or nightmare.

"Whatever, he'll be fine," Sam muttered before sighing, "But I won't be if I don't get something besides cookies down me, I'm starved," Sam complained while walking back towards the front door, stopping to glance at Danny. The teen was still passed how but now had a peaceful looking expression on this face.

"You guys want me to treat you to Nasty Burger?" Jazz asked while grabbing her keys, she already knew the answer of course. After all, what teen would _willingly_ pass up free food?

"You bet!" both teens smirked and answered at the same time before opening the door and running towards the car. Jazz smiled before locking the door behind her and following her brother's friends. It was the least she could do since the two had made sure Danny got home okay, instead of leaving him on the street like some might do. Besides, the two had been around her and Danny so much, it was like they were her little siblings too.

"I call shotgun!" Sam shouted before getting into an argument with Tucker. Jazz just rolled her eyes before going to settle the dispute. Honestly, those two were such children sometimes, but Danny was lucky to have such good friends all the same...

x

"You know what must happen Clockwork," a deep, and annoying in the time master's opinion, voice hissed from behind him.

"Yes, I know. Danny's friends and family must die... I believe we've already gone over this, multiple times," the last part was said in slight annoyance, although you wouldn't be able to tell the ghost was fed up with the ones behind him. He did have eons of practice with hiding his emotions after all.

"Very well, as long as you know what you must do," another voice said before leaving with his companion.

"Yes, I know very well what I must do," the voice sounded once again, although this time it sounded more aged and worn. The ghost looked at the large mirror in front of him that showed his young student's friends and sister arguing over who got to ride in the front of the car.

"I know what must happen, but that doesn't mean I like it..." the ghost muttered in anger before bringing up his time staff and switching the picture to that of a sleeping Danny. The ghost watched as the teen suddenly twitched in his sleep before fidgeting a little, as if he knew something bad was about to happen. Another tired and worn sigh escaped the ghost who was watching.

"Forgive me... Danny..." the ghost muttered before watching the events that were about to play out. Danny's world was about to be plunged into a living hell, and the boy had no say in the matter...


	3. Broken

**Chapter Two**

...

..

.

This wasn't supposed to have happened. Not to either of them. Nothing like this... The older man had felt nothing but loathing when he found the irony of the situation...really...Daniel was supposed to have come to him _willingly_! Not after his whole life, everyone he had cared for, his friends and family... Not after they all died...

Vladimir Masters slowly moved the papers he was reading to the side before tiredly rubbing his eyes. Their lives just couldn't get any worse. Not after all that had happened. Really though...how does one go about comforting a sixteen-year-old teenager who just lost everyone he's ever cared for? A teen who now had no one left but a twisted arch-enemy, not to mention crazed up fruitloop, to live with? Vlad didn't think one _could_ comfort the teen.

It wasn't the boy's fault though. How _could_ it have been his fault? He hadn't know what was happening to him and the others at the time! And if it indeed was his fault, than it was just as much Vlad's! At least, in his eyes it was... After all, he couldn't even save the woman he loved. Had loved... Even the boy's father, as much as the man _hated_ him...he was starting to feel regret for not being able to save him as well. After all, hadn't the two once been best friends? Some had even said the two were like brothers when around one another.

Another tired sigh escaped the man as he felt his ghost sense go off. Daniel must have went ghost and flew off to the roof. Again. It seemed that was the only way for the teen to cope these past few days. Vlad quickly pushed his chair away and stood up before glancing out the window behind him. Sunset. Another day had gone by, and still nothing had changed. It felt as if nothing would ever change...

There had to be something the man could do! He was one of the most powerful men in the world after all! Not to mention...he was worried about this little badger... The teen would no longer eat or even sleep, not to mention the lad was weaker then any human or ghost the man had ever seen! At times it was like the boy could hardly even breathe!

Vlad was starting to fear that the stress of what had happened to him might actually kill him one day. It was even scarier when the man thought that at times...Daniel really did want to die...

Two black rings wove around Vlad Masters' body as he quickly became his ghostly counterpart, Vlad Plasmius. Quickly phasing through the roof Vlad followed his inner ghost sense. All the while he was wishing he could do something, _anything_, for the teen in his care.

The man was getting more and more worried as the days went by and the teen started saying things he wasn't even able to make sense of. Things like dying would mean giving up and it would mean Phantom would become _him_. That he promised he wouldn't become that. The worse thing though...is when the man hears that heartbroken and dejected voice of his, a voice that's _given up_. He hears the teen mutter that it doesn't matter, that the ones he had promised are dead and gone.

Vlad let out another sigh as he finally spotted the ghostly teen watching the last remnants of a dying sun quickly turn into a dusky night, swallowing all light that tried to come out. The boy was hugging his knees and biting his lip. Vlad had seen him do this often when he tried to contain the grief he felt...it killed the man each time he saw this.

When the boy even did manage to get sleep he ended up screaming out for his loved ones. For those who were no longer there for him. He had even woken up in ghost form before, this often happening more and more often. The boy has even destroyed his room, countless times, in fear that something was there, looming over him. Trying to turn the boy into _him_...

"Oh Daniel..." Vlad trailed off while looking sad and uncertain as to what to say next. What should he say to the boy, what _could _he say to the boy? He'd said all he could to help the boy. No, words would no longer help him. _My poor little badger... I so wish I could do something for you..._

It just didn't make sense to the elder half... The boy's human emotions were making his ghost powers, his whole ghostly core, more and more unstable! At this rate, the ghostly energy might end up actually killing him... The man didn't think he would actually be able to live with the fact that he sat back and watched his little badger die...and being unable to do anything to stop it...

Vlad sadly watched the teen turn back into his human form, as if he could no longer keep up the energy to stay half-ghost. The elder halfa sighed before slowly and quietly taking a seat beside the distraught teenager. Vlad too turned back into his human form before glancing over at the teen. For all that mattered it was like the elder wasn't there.

_I don't want him to become like me! Bitter, alone, trusting almost no one. No real friends. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, human or ghost. Maybe I can fix things for Daniel. I know I'll never be able to really heal him, but maybe I can give him a jump start..._

Vlad raised a hand hesitantly, debating about whether he should comfort the teen or not. The small whimper that came from the teen was all he needed. The elder felt the teen's shock once he placed a hand on the teen's shoulder. The man was even more shocked when the teen tackled him in a hug. Now Vlad was sure... Daniel was truly broken.

If only Daniel didn't have ghost powers... If he hadn't gone into that _blasted_ portal... At least...that was what Vlad thought. If Daniel really hadn't gone into that portal though... Maybe...just maybe... What if the elder took his ghost powers away... Forever? Would that let him heal? Would the bitterness of a ghost leaving him help him get over his friends and family dying.

Yes... It would.

The older man seemed slightly unsure as he placed his arms around the teen. He felt Daniel tense up at first before slowly relaxing into the hug. Yes, this teen truly was broken. There was almost no life left in him. Vlad had to do something. Anything!

_I swear on my name as Plasmius, Masters, Vladimir, whatever the case. I swear that I will not let my Daniel suffer. I will help him. Even if it means ripping out his ghost side. I will not let my boy suffer like this, I can stand it no longer..._

Daniel... Please forgive me...

* * *

Alright, show of hands people! Who wants to kill me and rip my guts out? Or my humanity. Or tear me apart molecule by molecule...either one works right now... Anyone, anyone? Oh come on...at least one of you all must want to kill me! Than again...maybe you really don't care about Danny...is that it? You don't wanna kill me because you don't care, huh, is it?

*troll face*

Wanna kill me now? XD


	4. Shattered

Edit : Well...sorry it's taking so long. I got hit by a pretty tough bug, then I had to study for my upcoming GED. All together...I'm really sorry it's taking so long. On the bright side, I think it's getting better than the first time! Yay!

**Told ya I would update. Here's Chapter Four! Woo! And I uploaded it on the day I promised. How awesome is that! This is my Valentine's present for you guys! Hope ya like it! Heh, you are SO gonna wanna kill me when you read this chapter. Bright side, it should clear some things up. Not-so-bright-side... Well, you'll most likely either cry and wanna kill me... Oh dear... I should hide now *darts off with no intention of returning***

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**Chapter Three**

Zzz...

Zz...

Zzz...

**Danny's POV**

Ugh, I feel terrible...it feels as if my whole body is being covered in flames! Really _hot_ flames! Why the heck is it burning so badly? I mean, even when I get burned by flames it never hurts _this_ badly, my ice powers usually numb the pain...but now though..._everything_ hurts. It feels like something important is happening, something I _really_ need to stop. Something I should be fighting to prevent from happening... But I have no freaking clue what it is!

A little grunt of pain tore past my lips before I shifted under the thick covers some more. Wait...covers? I hurriedly sat straight up, in my bed? Looking around in confusion I could only thing one thing, what the heck had happened? Last thing I remembered was feeling as if I was about to pass out on the way home from school... Oh.

Idiot...must have fallen asleep on the sidewalk! My head shook itself at my blatant stupidity, I couldn't even stay awake long enough to get home! How pathetic was that... Sam and Tucker must've carried me home. Man, I would be so utterly dead if not for those guys, well, more dead than I was right now anyways.

I shifted my body to where I was leaning against my headboard before looking around my room some more. It still didn't make sense as to why I was up here on my bed in the first place. I mean, if it was _Tuck_ carrying me home, he would've dumped me on the couch no problem. No way would he bother carrying me up all those stairs to my room. He's too lazy for that.

My eyes widened on their own when I started to smell something delicious. Something utterly and completely delicious. Jazz's cookies... I just couldn't resist the huge smile I had as my eyes landed on the plate full of chocolate-chip cookies on my bedside table. Man, Jazz always knew how to make my day better, no matter how horrible it was. She, Sam, and Tuck were more than I could ever ask for, without them, ghost hunting would have killed me thoroughly by now.

Grabbing a cookie and munching down made me even happier when I realized that they were still warm and meltingly delicious. The thought of heading downstairs to get a glass of warm milk before going back to sleep was cut off at the sight of a small white square. It looked like...a piece of paper, one that was fluttering under the plate of cookies - courtesy of the breeze coming in from my open window.

Must've been a note...but from who? Scanning over the contents briefly it suddenly made more sense as to why I was in my room instead of on the couch. Mom and Dad. They must've carried me upstairs to my room after Jazz, Sam, and Tuck left. Jazz probably took them all to the Nasty Burger to get something to eat as thanks for making sure I got home okay instead of leaving me on the sidewalk.

"Good old Jazz...bet Tuck and Sam fought over shotgun or some- ouch!" A little hiss cut off the rest of my sentence as I clutched my stomach, the note slipping from my grasp and fluttering down towards the floor somewhere. There was that stupid burning feeling that woke me up again... Only this time, it felt even hotter, if that was possible. I knew one thing for certain though...the more the pain increased...

The worse things got.

"Jeez...this doesn't make any sense..." The pain can't be due to my ghost powers or anything, or even a fever! My ice powers had always stopped my body from overheating, heck, my temperature was lower than normal due to my ghost powers! So than what was going on with me? It didn't feel like the stomach flu or anything...and it couldn't have been from not eating since I just ate one of Jazz's cookies...

"Wha-?" My fists unclenched as I sat up straighter, feeling absolutely _no _pain... "The pain stopped...what the...?" Well...it had for the most part anyways...there was still this dull ache, but nothing serious. "Jeez...this feels like some cliché book where the main character is sensing something bad happening to their loved ones or whatever..."

What a joke. I mean, it wasn't like my life was some cartoon show.

"Maybe a shower will help clear things up," I muttered under my breath before kicking the covers to the floor and stretching, hearing a dull pop from my lower back. Hot water always did help clear my head, and I didn't doubt it wouldn't help now...wait...what? "The heck...I think... I think I just confused myself with my own thoughts...

"Maybe Jazz is right, maybe I _do_ need a psychiatrist..." I moaned to myself before grabbing another one of the cookies and biting into it, smiling as I felt the wonderful taste of sweet chocolate-chip. About to rummage around for a pair of clothes that didn't stink too badly, I instead took few steps from my bed, only to trip over a pair of stray, and dirty, jeans. The result? Me landing belly-down in front of my bed, on the wooden floor, hard.

Great, I couldn't have landed on my bed? Just my kind of luck, like the kind that got me my ghost powers. When would my life ever have any luck in it? I mean, I save the town on a daily basis and have to put up with ghost hunters for parents and a sister who is studying to be a psychologist... Not to mention that one of my friends was an ultra-recycle-vegetarian, something most people had never heard of. Oh, and let's not forget that the other one is a techno-geek that just solved one of the world's most unsolvable math equations...

Oh who am I kidding. My life will never be lucky, let alone _normal_.

"Hm... What's this?" My eye caught site of a piece of paper that was halfway under the bed, I scanned the rest of the words before smirking, it had been the note mom and dad left for me. Apparently the rest of the note filled me in on how the two had carried me up to my room before leaving.

The reason they had left was to give Jazz her wallet, which she had forgotten. Of course the wallet excuse was just so they could search the Nasty Burger and it's surrounding locations for any traces of ecto residue or _ecto-unfriendlies_. Poor Jazz. Looked like she would be hiding in the bathroom for the next hour or so, or pretending Sam was her sister.

A few chuckles escaped at the thought of Mom and Dad, in their colorful hazmat suits, bursting into the place to hand Jazz her wallet before searching for ghosts. Ah...my sister suffering permanent social humiliation, instead of me, was a wonderful thing indeed... The thought cheered me up immensely as I began walking towards the bathroom before closing the door behind me with my foot, hearing the soft click.

Honestly, if I didn't have ghost-hearing I probably wouldn't have even heard it, which confirms the fact that I live with a bunch of paranoid people. Dad believes doors that close loudly attract ghosts. No one has had the heart to tell him that it's creaking doors that attract _bad luck_... Then again...he's half-right, since Johnny is the persona of bad luck and all...

Suppressing another sigh and inner monologue of my crazy life, I quickly flipped the handle for the hot water on. That was the one good thing about showering in the middle of the day, all the hot water you could ever wish for, no crazy gypsy wishing ghost required.

"Whoa! Okay, maybe not so much middle-of-the-day after all," I muttered as reached down to remove my watch, which read sometime near seven at night. Quickly turning myself intangible, I phased my clothes off before glancing out the locked bathroom door and looking out my window, where the sun was slowly going down. Sometimes using your powers for pointless things felt good. Really good.

I mused on that pointless and random thought before stepping into the shower. Of course with my luck, that same thought took a darker turn towards the future. To be specific, ten years into the future. Well...eight I suppose, now that I was 16 and all. Seventeen in a few weeks!

"Damn..." No matter how hard I try, I can't go through one _day_ without thinking about that jerk at least once... I hate him. I hate him so much. Now...I know the hero isn't usually supposed to hate people and all that... He's usually the guy that's telling others to forgive and forget and all that stuff...but...you try not hating that guy!

He tried to kill all of my family and friends, all my loved ones... He almost did too! He had even ruined all the lives, well, after-lives, of the ghosts! I may not have liked them tearing up my hometown everyday, but that didn't mean I had wanted them to _suffer _or anything!

Heck, if it hadn't been for Clockwork I think I really would've gone down that dark path. I really would have lost everyone important to me. I hadn't though, and I never would. That was the main thing. I had promised them I would never turn into that, even if they didn't remember...I did. And I swore not to break that promise. Ever.

_But what if you did break the promise? What would happen if the ones you had promised died? _I jumped at the sudden thought that entered my head. At least...it had sounded like a thought, but more...clear? Sorta like a voice that had just been spoken out in the open, and you were running the words over in your head.

"Wait...did I just think 'you' instead of I... That's...strange... Gah!" I jumped again when I felt the water that was hitting my skin turn ice cold. "Are those...ice cubes?" Jeez, how long had I been in here!

Grabbing a towel I jumped out of the shower, thanking my ice powers that I couldn't freeze _thanks_ to said ice powers. Oh great, now even my thoughts are turning more and more confusing! As if this day could get any better. Well... At least on the bright side I didn't have to go study at Clockwork's tonight. Master of All Time said I could have tonight off, must've known how tired I would be...

"Duh, of course he did Fenton, Master of All Time and Reality here..." Jeez...a small sigh escaped as I realized that even if I didn't fight ghosts for a day, it was still always abnormal around here. The Box Ghost didn't count, since I hadn't even needed Phantom's help. "Whoa...wait..._Phantom's _help...okay...first time I thought of my ghost half like that..."

Shaking my head, and hoping to get rid of the crazy, I wrapped the towel around my waist before turning intangible, causing all the water to fall off me. Except my hair of course, that part I still had to dry off with a towel. Having ghost powers actually came quite in handy when doing everyday things... Wonder if Vlad knew how to phase water out of hair...

_And what about all the fights? All the times you were almost killed due to_ being _a ghost?_ A shiver wracked my body as the thought entered into my head just like last time. And the shiver wasn't from the cold either... "Man, what is going _on _today! I mean, yeah I know people listen to their thoughts sometimes, but this is ridiculous!" Or in Tucker's words, plain messed-up crazy.

_Is it? Is it really that crazy? Than again, so is being a half-ghost human... Or maybe a half-human ghost?_

"Shut up!" Great. Now I'm talking to a voice that's inside my head... Okay, okay...maybe Jazz has a _slight _point about me getting professional help. I mean, it couldn't hurt or anything...unless the guy found out I had ghost powers. Then you could cue the painful experiments and look of shock and horror from my parents. Not to mention the shock of everyone that knew wimpy Danny Fenton...

"Okay. Shrink. Bad idea...it's not like I need one anyways. I mean...it's just the thought about being half-human instead of half-ghost..." I tugged my shirt and jeans on while thinking about it a little more... I mean, sure I had thought about before, being half-_human _instead of half-ghost...I had ever since Spectra had first put the thought into my head. But...I had been a human to begin with...so I couldn't be half-_human_...

That and Spectra was just trying to feed off my misery and confusion.

Kicking the door back to my bedroom open I grabbed another one of Jazz's cookies, hoping to calm down my crazy thoughts. I mean, yeah, I was used to some pretty crazy and messed up stuff. I fought ghosts for a living! For two years! Not to mention that before that I grew up with two parents who had been, and still were, the world's leading ghost experts... But this was just plain stupid! Not to mention, as Jazz and the fruitloop would put it, unhealthy.

Fruitloop... Vlad... Why do I keep thinking about him today?

_Because you have a bond... Both of you are the only halfas in the world that exist, only Vlad has it worse. He's lived with bitterness, and now you've seen what it's done to him, to a ghost... What it did to you-_

"I said shut up you stupid little voice!" Man, I _really_ hope Mom and Dad aren't home, and especially Jazz, than that would be _really_ bad. Yelling at a voice in my head is one thing. Having people hear me yelling at that voice... Well, that's something else entirely. Of course, the only thing worse than having my family and friends hear would be having the fruitloop here to hear it. Great, there goes another thought of the fruitloop. And thoughts that aren't making sense!

"Jeez...this day just couldn't get any worse," I muttered while jumping down the last few steps, the towel that was still on my head and coming loose a little bit. "Maybe more cookies would help..." I was hoping that the sugar would either calm me down, or make it to where my thoughts made absolutely no sense at all. At least then I wouldn't have to think about things like that. I hated thinking about things like that. Vlad, _him_, ghosts.

When I could just be a normal teen with a normal life, that was a happy enough day for me.

"Hah! As if my life is ever _normal_," I mumbled around a mouth full of cookie, "Well...at least I haven't been killed from ghost-hunting yet! That's a plus! That and I always have Jazz's cookies to look forward too...hm...wonder if I should make her some fudge as thanks..." She always did like my fudge... "Suppose it couldn't hu-"

_Holy shi...what the hell is going on! _I barely felt the sting of falling to my knees as I tripped down the rest of the steps, my hands clenching my stomach where I felt that fire again. Only this time it was a _lot_ worse... It felt like being eaten by flames only for my ice powers to freeze them. Then it felt like the process started all over again, and the whole thing of hot cold, hot cold really wasn't helping me with trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Of course, with the paranoia inherited from my father, all I could think was that it was something to do with ghosts...

As if on cue with my thoughts of a ghost attack, I heard someone suddenly scream. Loudly. It sounded so _agonizing_, like they were dying, or about to anyways. The hero in me wanted to help that person, till I suddenly realized that the person who had been screaming was actually me. That I was the one who sounded like they were dying. Great. My day just got even better.

_What would you do? What would you do if your loved ones died? If you were left without them? Alone. Scared. Angry. Bitter... Would you turn into him?_

"**SHUT UP! I WILL **_**NEVER**_** TURN INTO THAT**!" I felt myself scream at the top of my lungs, all the while praying for the pain to just stop. For it to just fade to something else. I wouldn't even mind if I passed out or fainted right now, it would sure beat sitting here and feeling nothing but _pain_.

The shivers I had been feeling the whole time finally stopped as I fully collapsed onto the floor, a few tears rolling down my cheeks without me realizing. Just what the heck was going on with me?

_Would you turn into him? If they all died? Would you?_

"No... I promised..." One last moan was all I was able to get out when I felt the pain suddenly...stop. After that everything was suddenly thrown into sharp prospective, as if I was on an adrenaline high. Trust me, I've been through enough of those to realize just how crazy they can be...

"Crap...what _was_ that? It felt awful..." My head snapped up when I heard the tinkling sounds of glass, did someone break in? Great, and here I was with tear streaks down my face and still shivering every now and then like I had just had a near-death experience, or something like it... As if my day could get no better...

My eyes looked around for what made the sound, only to see that it looked like a broken picture frame. Jeez, and here I had thought it was something serious... "So much for that...wait..." I felt my body pulse as I looked at he picture. Not pulse as in reproducing blood cells or anything, but pulse as in...as in my ghostly core...

Stumbling to my feet I practically ran over to the wall, even though I knew the right thing to do would have been to rest after what had just happened. Still...I had learned the hard way to not ignore things like this... And this felt _important_.

I finally managed to get my body to lean against the wall so I wouldn't fall over, after that I looked up at the picture only to feel as if I just got kicked in the chest, by Pariah himself! And trust me, that _really_ hurts. The picture was one taken a few months ago, one of me and my whole family, plus Sam and Tucker of course, standing out in front of Fenton Works.

My eyes only widened even more once I saw just what had happened to the frame. The glass had broken, it looked as if it had been hit with the blunt end of a staff or something... There were cracks spider-webbing across the whole thing, everyone's faces and bodies had cracks going through them...no...that wasn't entirely true...there was one person you could see clearly. The only person who didn't have cracks running through their head or body, instead there was one huge line running right across their chest...and through the heart...

And it was me.

Suddenly that whole _sensing-when-something-happens-to-your-loved-ones_ thing didn't sound as stupid as it had when I first woke up with the same kind of pain I had just felt.

_What would happen if they died? Would you end up breaking that promise?_

An ice-cold feeling suddenly took over my body, forcing myself to change into my ghost-half without my permission...it felt like I was going ghost against my will...like someone else had taken control... I felt myself kneel down, kick off against the floor, and phase through the floors and ceilings like I had down a thousand times...only this time it felt like I was racing against the clock...and running out of time wasn't an option...

In a few seconds I was floating above the Ops center, something I had done a million times...the only difference was that now that searing pain had returned...and it hurt twice as bad as it had last time... Especially when I caught sight of a thick and dense column of smoke coming from the center of town. It was the smoke of fire...no...more like...an explosion...

My body automatically tensed before speeding off into the direction the smoke was coming for...it didn't feel right though. I was flying but I was also trying to stop...but something kept me from stopping my flight and changing back into Fenton. Which really sucked because I did _not _want to g over there...I knew when something bad was waiting for me. I knew cause I was feeling the same thing I had felt right before I had stepped into that stupid portal!

"No..." Any struggling that I had been doing immediately stopped as soon as I saw where the flames had been coming from... There were coming from the Nasty Burger...no...it was coming from what was _left _of the Nasty Burger... The whole building was practically gone, only the foundation and a few pieces of wall left standing... Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, all of them were crowded around the place. All were trying to hold back the scores of citizens wanting to know what happened, all the while searching for survivors...

Less then one second later and I felt...nothing. The searing pain I had since I had woken up, the dull ache that had never left...both had just...gone. My eyes seemed to have a mind of their own as they looked down towards the center of the wreckage, right around where the explosion had been the worse.

If it could, my blood would have turned to ice...and this time it had nothing to do with my ghost powers...

_What would you do.._.

There, being pulled out onto various stretchers with the EMTs beginning to pull white sheets over their faces, were the ones I loved... The ones who I couldn't live without...

_If they were all gone..._

I didn't need to have my ghost hearing to hear what the EMTs were saying. It was too late to save them, they were all now dead, they had been in the center of the blast. No survivors. Mom, Dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Lancer, even most of my classmates from school... All of them were dead... All of them were... Gone...

_Would you turn into him..._

The tortured sound that left me probably sounded like that of beast. A wounded beast that held nothing but grief and anger. I don't even think I could feel myself fly away at the speeds I had only ever dreamed of reaching. All I knew was...they were gone, and they weren't coming back. I'd never see them again, never hear their voices, never feel their reassuring hugs. Never... I didn't even manage to notice my heart as it started breaking. Shattering.

_So...are you going to become evil now that they're all gone..._

"NO! No...I promised them...I had promised them all that I wouldn't!" The town flew by beneath me as I headed to...somewhere...anywhere... "This isn't my fault...it can't be my fault...it...it wasn't! I wasn't around there...I had been no where near there!... Yeah...yeah...that's right! This is a dream...just a bad dream... I'll wake up tomorrow, have a good laugh with Sam and Tuck, then forget it ever happened...

"Right?"

I mean...it wasn't my fault... Was it?

_Actually, that was me. And you, eventually..._

No... It was my fault. I could have saved them. I was the one who was part ghost after all, I had powers! What's the point of them if I can't use them to save my family! I have powers! But...I didn't use them...did I? It really _is_ all my fault...isn't it... My fault...my fault..._my fault...MY FAULT... __**IT WAS ALL MY FAULT! MINE! MINE! MINE!**_

_Don't worry, I won't turn into that. Ever. I promise._

_You don't get it, do ya? I'm still here._ **I** _still exist! That means _**you**..._still turn into_** me**...

All his fault...? No...mine...his...

Whose fault was it?

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Forgive me. The ending is kinda confusing where it switches perspective. I just really wanted to show how broken Danny's thoughts were right now. So... NOW do ya wanna kill me? I bet you do! Come on, show me what ya got!

**Edit: I changed it to where the perspective doesn't switch like it did the first time. Now it should be more easy to see how broken his thoughts really are. Of course the italics are quotes from the show. I'm pretty certain you all know which one they are... Now, if you excuse me, I have to go work on Vlad's POV... *shudder* Do you know how hard it is to do _Vlad_? Him and his SAT vocabulary...*shudder* Yeesh.**


	5. Fate Hates Us

**Whoosh!** Did**ya miss me? **Probably not ha ha! But hey, look, I updated! And to make up for all the missed days you had to do without a chapter. Guess what? This one is seven thousand words, thirteen pages and Vlad's point of view. How wonderful is that? Also, the ending sentence, I stole it from a story that was based of Lab Rats that deals with Lancer finding Danny. I forget the story name, but I know it's not mine. SO yeah...Whatever.

Okay, ellipses (...) are confusing little buggers that I really hate. So if you see it messed up, ignore it. They don't like me very much. I think that's about all I have to say. Enjoy and seeya at the bottom!

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**Chapter Five – Fate Hates The Halflings **

…

..

.

_Where on Earth was that blasted boy? _Two weeks. It had been two long weeks since that incident that had taken place at that dreadful Nasty Burger. It had been broadcasting on the news for a whole week, spewing stories and theories on what had really happened. Not that I trusted any of them, mortals were such horrible sources for reliable and trusted information.

"When I find that boy..." I muttered darkly to myself while trying to keep my temper in check. Losing my calm will not help me figure out what had taken place. And it certainly wouldn't help me find Daniel. Daniel...

Where the blast was he?

I know he hadn't been in the explosion itself, the police and EMT had already identified all of the..._bodies_, that had been found. Maddie included...Maddie, how I missed her so. I was devastated when I learned of what had transpired in my absence of the town. I was even surprised to find myself sad at that big oaf's passing. Yes I wanted him to suffer for turning me into a monster and taking the woman I love away from me, but...

I never wanted to kill him. Just humiliate him. I shook my head to clear my rapid thoughts. 20 years of not having a conscious and it returns at the time I least need distractions!

"Daniel... Where could you have gone..." I sighed once again while surveying the area from my position in the sky, invisible of course. I would hate to be seen by any passing humans and have to deal with their screaming. Even more so I would hate to be seen by Daniel and scare him off before I could get some answers out of him.

Maybe if I went over the places I had checked so far. The first thing I had done was check the Nasty Burger myself. Humans have the habit of making large mistakes and missing things that are important. After being certain Daniel had not been in or near the blast, thank God, I went to the next obvious choice of location. Fentonworks.

The thing that worried me most however was that it looked like all of the Fentons had just been there. There were ecto-weapons tossed on the ground carelessly, those I did my best to avoid. Than there were the absent signs of life. Not a one. The only odd thing that was out-of-place, besides all the ghost weaponry, was the plate of cookies on Daniel's bedside table.

They looked to be a few days old, which was how long it had been since the explosion. After scouring the house for any more clues I might need, I quickly flew out of the house and checked Miss Manson's and Mister Foely's residences. If Daniel did indeed leave his home, he might have gone to one of his little friend's homes. Though I doubt it, since the two had also perished in the explosion.

Soon after scanning the most likely places he would be, I contacted Skulker and those idiot vultures to search the rest of the town, hoping he was somewhere familiar. Of course, being the hard-headed stubborn teenage boy he was, he most likely ran away to somewhere unfamiliar and was currently lost and mostly confused.

I pinched the bridge of my nose with two fingers while feeling the oncoming migraine. No matter what the situation, Daniel always found a way to push my buttons and drive me to my limits. Even when the boy wasn't around!

"Did you find anything yet?" I demanded while pulling out a small communicator I had been using more and more recently. At first I thought it would serve little to no purpose, how wrong I was after I had first discovered Amity Park's 'Danny Phantom'.

"Negative boss, the boy's nowhere to be found!" Idiot vultures. I could safely assume they were not trying very hard to find the boy. Not that I would completely blame them, they were rather sore at the fact that they had been beaten by the boy. Multiple times.

"The whelp is nowhere in sight Plasmius. Do you think he just died and became full ghost? Surely a boy that had that much grief wouldn't be able to move on..."

"No Skulker. If it's one thing Daniel will never do, it's take the easy way out."

"That and join you," I heard the cyborg mutter. Of course this comment made me a little irritable. Not because it was true, but because he was bringing up faulty and irrelevant information in a time that it was not needed nor wanted.

Okay, so I was a tad bit irritated, "Just shut up and keep searching for the boy, _oh great hunter_," Honestly. He was supposed to be the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, and he couldn't even track down the boy he had kept tabs on for over two years? "What's your status Fright Knight?"

"Negative my Liege. As the others say, the boy is nowhere to be found. On Earth or in the Ghost Zone."

"Continue searching and keep me posted."

"Yes my Liege," was the only positive response I got. The others were...Less than pleasing I should say.

"Daniel when I find you..." I trailed off on my threats before glancing once more over the forest I had been in before speeding back towards my mansion. I had taken the habit of searching the woods near my house in case the boy had decided to try and run here. It wouldn't be too unlikely, I was the only other human who knew what he was.

As I flew back I couldn't help but think over what Skulker had said. Yes there was always the possibility that Daniel had committed suicide, but I didn't think the boy would ever do that. As much as it pains me to say it, that stupid hero-complex of his wouldn't allow it. If any good came of that complex, I suppose it was that.

There was also the possibility that he had been captured by a ghost or human. But I was highly certain that wasn't the case. The other ghost-hunters scattered around the country were...Well, in simple terms, more idiotic and useless than Jack. And that was saying something! As for the Guys-in-White - I didn't pause to think for a second that they had the abilities to capture Daniel.

They couldn't even capture the Box Ghost! Let alone a powerful teenage halfa who had been working on honing his skills for the past two years. They would have a better shot at capturing either Skulker or the Fright Knight!

That left only a few options left as to what could have happened to him. One of those was a theory that I was not tempted to think about.

Death.

It was highly unlikely, but, a possibility none the less. I do not think Daniel would purposely die or kill himself, but, with what his state of mind must be like right now...He would be easy prey for any revenge-seeking ghost. In his mental state he might me killed just by walking out into the road at the wrong time! Not that I put too much stock in that happening.

Daniel might have been in a severe state of depression, but he was still part ghost. That meant that he had his powers, and whether he was conscious of it or not, all ghosts have a will to survive. If he was in immediate danger, his powers would activate unconsciously long enough for him to reach safety. I should know, this had happened to me quite a few times over the years.

I felt that migraine from earlier hit at full force as I quickly changed back into my human form, grabbing a bottle of aspirin from the bathroom cabinet as I did so. Quickly filling a glass of water and shoving the pills down my throat I swallowed before looking at myself in the mirror.

I had seen better days, that was for sure. I suppose it could have been worse. Usually when you get only a few hours of sleep over a span of two weeks you look half-dead. No pun intended of course.

"Great. Even when the boy is missing and nowhere near me, he still has an effect on my speech habits and thought." I sighed to myself, an action I had seemed to find myself doing quite frequently as of late, before exiting the bathroom and making my way towards the private study.

As much as I would love to keep searching for Daniel, if I didn't get the bare minimum of my work done, hell was sure to follow. Especially with a secretary like mine...I swiftly sat down before turning on the laptop at my desk and reaching for a stack of nearby papers that I had needed to go over and approve.

Tedious for certain, but, the sooner I accomplished it, the sooner the search for Daniel could continue. My theories were quickly being shot down on where he might be, meaning I was running out of places to search. I don't believe he would leave the States. Even in the situation he was in, he wouldn't be desperate enough to leave behind his homeland.

Not yet. Than again, I could be wrong. That seemed to happen quite often when it concerned this boy. Even as I began signing forms and checking my mail, my mind continued to think of places Daniel could have gone. He could have fled into the Ghost Zone, but...

He would have to be very desperate to have done that. Almost the whole Zone was wanting revenge on the boy, including the ghosts under my current employment. Of course, they knew better than to try and attack the boy. As for him actually being there in the ghosts realm...

There was always the chance, whether small or not, hence why the Fright Knight was the one searching there. He knew the Ghost Zone quite well and had traveled it often, being where he used to serve under Pariah's rule. Daniel could have hidden with one of his few allies though. I know of only a few who have befriended the boy and would be willing to help him.

The realm of the Far Frozen seemed the most likely, which is why I had Fright check back there as many times as he could. Frostbite seemed the type who wouldn't hesitate to help the boy. The bad blood between me and the Far Frozen however, forbid me from checking there for the boy myself. No matter, even if Daniel did hide there, rumors would reach me or one of my associates eventually.

As for all of his other allies in the realm...There were a few more who might be able to help and hide him. The Dragon Ghost Princess Dorothea I knew was one of them. She could easily hide the boy in her realm and he would be protected quite well. I don't think he would be there however, him and that blasted hero-complex would mean he would never want to trouble any of his allies, whether they wanted to help or not. Which was one more good thing about it I suppose.

"This is getting me nowhere," I muttered while setting my pen down and bringing up a map of the Ghost Zone on the screen of the laptop. I had checked multiple places myself, and those that I didn't have time to or couldn't, Fright checked for me. Yet something was telling me that Daniel was not in the Ghost Zone...

For some reason, a few months after getting his powers, that boy avoided the Zone like a plague. I found it strange because when he first realized about the Zone he was ecstatic about the thought of another world. Like his father and mother in that aspect I suppose. Yet soon after he had changed.

He hid it quite well in front of his friends, but whenever he went in there, he was nervous. As if something or someone was after him. He was especially skittish in one area of the Ghost Zone that had no visible Ghosts or Realms, at least, as far as I was sure.

It was puzzling to be sure, but it was also a sign that he wouldn't enter there in his current state. Not yet. He would want to avoid any unfamiliar places after losing the ones he cared so much for.

As for the human realm however. Well...There was quite a few places that he could hide in. However, that same feeling that was telling me he wasn't in the Ghost Zone was telling me he wouldn't stray too far from his home. That place held too many memories for him to abandon it, even with what had happened.

I heard a loud crash coming from the downstairs library that startled me out of my thoughts. Soon after I cringed, whatever had made that noise sounded like something had been broken. Something very expensive and very important. I sighed once more before powering down the laptop and letting my ghost side come into being, or as Daniel so fondly put it, _going ghost_.

I flew through the floors and ceilings, in no real hurry, before stopping in the library. Yes, I was right. Something was broken. And it was important. Or I should say they. A few shelves of books lay toppled over on the floor, a few of the pages being torn and bent at odd angles while one or two of the books had been torn right through the spine.

The shattering sound that had alerted me had been a very old Chinese vase, which was now in little pieces. _Many_ little pieces. I groaned as I realized the bookshelf that had fallen had been the one that contained the books that I had procured from the Ghost Zone. It had cost me far more than money to get a hold of those books. Well, I suppose it wasn't too bad. I could always convince Andrew to repair the ones that were servilely damaged, that is, if he didn't have a heart attack over the sight of precious books being this bad off.

Honestly, he was a great writer and historian, but his love of books could be somewhat annoying and frustrating to say the least.

I bent over to try and see which books would need mending when a purple, hard-backed book caught my eye. It wasn't even one of the ghostly books. It was one of my books of maps on the surrounding area. A book I kept on the other side of the library.

I bent down to look at the page that it had been opened to, only to see that it was a map of the surrounding forests around the mansion. Strange. I had a feeling that this book had been placed here for a reason. And after twenty years of listening to ghostly instinct, I wasn't about to ignore it now. Even if it did sound preposterous.

"Something has been going on...But I suppose I will find out what happened here when I get back," I muttered, swearing I had heard an amused chuckle before flying outside towards the forest. Again. Maybe the lack of sleep was finally getting to me. No humans were in the mansion today, and it couldn't have been a ghost since my sense had failed to warn me of anything.

Than again, I've seen many strange things over the years. Things that have made me cautious. So after checking to see what this tour of the grounds and forest was all about, I would definitely be checking up on the library again.

I glanced down at the book I was still holding once more to see what the pages were. It was showing a map of the forests to the north of the mansion, as well as a picture of what the forest looked like and what the species of tress and fauna were – Wait...

I knew that picture! It was a small piece of land near the river bend behind the old stables! I had first discovered it near the time I had first bought the mansion. It was also the first time I discovered one of my more, ah, _deadlier _ghost talents. To find Daniel there would certainly be a dose of irony.

I looked up from the book to see that I had already been flying to the area without realizing it. Yes, the lack of sleep was definitely messing with my normal thinking processes. There was no other explanation as to why I was suddenly following the random page of a book that had randomly fallen in my library to try and find a lost teen.

One that I had been searching for near two weeks. In a place that I had already checked. I believed in fact and logic. This was guessing and hope, two things I did not believe in. Not in the least.

But if those two things managed to find Daniel, than I suppose I wasn't so against them. I felt my body stiffen once I reached the river bend. Yes. Definitely a dose of irony.

"Skulker, Fright Knight, Vultures, you no longer need to look for the boy," I muttered into the small communication device I held in my hand while landing on the ground quickly and quietly.

"Whaat? We've been searching for two weeks straight and you suddenly want us to quit?" Yes you stupid vultures. That's what the words 'no longer' mean.

"Okay Plasmius, you have a reason as to why we're calling off the search, so what is it?" Ah Skulker, he was one of the few who understood my mind. At times of course.

"Yes my Liege, did you per chance hear news of the boy?" Fright Knight also seemed to understand my thoughts at times. One of the reasons as to why those two were so dependable in tough situations.

"No, not news. I found the boy himself," I muttered while kneeling down on the earthen floor and looking at the boy in front of me. No mistake, it was definitely Daniel. His eyes were open but he looked to be barely conscious, and his eyes, they looked almost..._Dead_. I had seen ghosts with brighter eyes than his were now!

I quickly shut the communicator off, thus ending the torrent of voices that had been coming from it, "Daniel? Little badger, can you hear me?" I held my breath as I checked to see if the boy was breathing. I think I found myself having a near heart-attack when I felt no pulse and saw no rise and fall of his chest. It was at the moment I almost had a breakdown that I realized the boy was in ghost form, and therefore didn't need to breathe.

"Idiot Plasmius. Use your intellect, not you emotions," I grumbled to myself while trying to help the boy into a sitting position, "Daniel, I need you to listen to me. Are you even awake?" I felt my patience growing thinner as the seconds ticked by and he was still silent. I believe it was understandable though, due to my lack of proper rest and hours spent worrying over the boy.

"V-Vlad...?" I was startled as my mind worked into overdrive. The voice had been weak, but it had definitely been there. I would be damned before I admitted to becoming delusional and desperate enough to start hearing voices.

"Yes Daniel, it's me, I _need _you to tell me what happened to you," I spoke slowly and clearly while hoping he was coherent enough to understand me and respond back.

"Not sure. Flew. Kept flying, all a blur..." the boy paused to take a few ragged breaths while I tried my best to understand his fragmented sentences. He wasn't making much sense. I did manage to understand that he was slightly delirious and that he had been flying for quite a while. Yet surely he couldn't have been flying for two straight weeks!

"Remember...it being dark...and cold. Kept flying...trying to escape...no use...Vlad...They're all gone. Aren't they?" I found myself depressed at the deep and cutting emotions whirling in the boy's eyes. Depression. Clear and simple.

"Yes Daniel. They're...they're gone..." Saying it myself made it seem so...Final. I suppose Daniel thought so as well as he just continued to lay limp in my arms while his eyes started glazing over with what I suspect was unshed tears.

"S'not fair. Why does fate hate us so much...?" I was a little surprised by how coherent he was given the circumstances. Yes, he was definitely delirious.

"I really don't know Daniel. Maybe they just needed a laugh and they decided we were pathetic enough to give them that," I muttered bitterly while watching as the boy's lips quirked into a tiny smirk.

"Yeah. That sounds possible. Would explain why this crap keeps happening to us and no one else. Why we get no happiness. Just...Grief..." This boy...He sounded so worn and tired. As if this had all happened to him before. He sounded like I did, and that was something that was frightening enough to give me shivers. I didn't want the boy to sound like that. He needed to be the happy and sarcastic teenager that was always boasting about being the town hero!

"Come on Daniel, let's get you bandaged up," I muttered while carefully helping Daniel stand, finally noticing the blood and ectoplasm seeping through the boy's hazmat suit. He seemed to try before leaning against me heavily and reverting back to his human self, as if he didn't have the energy to do anything else.

"Ugh...Vlad, I've realized something." I heard the boy mumble, almost as if he wasn't really thinking while he was talking. Than again, I suppose he never really thought before he opened his mouth, so why should him being half-coherent and in a state of depression change anything.

"And what's that little badger?" I asked while shifting Daniel to where he was in my arms and leaning against my chest before I quickly took off towards the castle. I saw the boy's eyes drifting close before I heard him speak up again softly.

"Being half-ghost really sucks." I almost laughed. I really did. The way he had said it, as if he were a pouting six-year-old, really reassured me that Daniel was still Daniel. That didn't mean my worries were going to go away anytime soon. He was still hurt, and he looked to be bleeding heavier than I had first though.

"Yes Daniel. Being half-ghost can really be a burden sometimes," I muttered back, trying to keep the boy awake long enough to ask him what had happened to him since he vanished from Amity Park. And just how exactly he had gotten those wounds.

"At first I thought it would be cool you know? What fourteen-year-old wouldn't want super-powers?" I nearly grimaced at how weak he sounded, I also noticed that he had to be really out of it if he was talking about his personal life and troubles to me. The one he dubbed his hated arch-nemesis, the cheese-head fruitloop. What an endearing boy.

"And it _was_ cool, at first. I fought ghosts and was able to help protect my friends and help protect my family." I phased into one of the guest bedrooms while the boy kept mumbling about his ghost powers. I quickly and gently set the boy on the bed before turning human myself and feeling his forehead. While I was doing that I had realized I had left the book in the woods. Not that I really cared since my suspicious were just proven right. Fever.

And that meant it had to be pretty high since I had felt it in his ghost form when I first found him. I quickly looked around for the first-aid kit, figuring I would have search half the damn floor before spotting it on the bedside table a few feet away. Question later, take care of the boy now.

"It was kinda hard...to hide my powers from everyone. Especially since my intangibility was still settling in," I winced at what the boy said while rummaging around for the right supplies. I knew how that was. I had gotten my intangibility powers while still in the hospital. Not an easy thing to explain how I ended up sometimes floors down from my room when I was supposed to be too weak to walk. I suppose that was why Daniel's school records said he was banned from handling beakers and other fragile objects in biology and science.

"And it was really hard to hide my temperature from the others and the school nurse," I started, had his temperature gone up or down? One point could make a big difference if he did have a fever. I quickly grabbed the thermometer before inserting one of the plastic covers over the metal gauge.

"Daniel, what was your temperature after you gained your powers?" I asked, I was hoping he was still awake enough to hear me and answer.

"Me, Sam and Tucker took all my basic body stats after we found out about the ghost powers. Sam said it was important to find out in case I got sick and needed to be treated," Apparently he was awake enough to answer, "Temp was around...eighty-eight degrees or so." I stared at the boy in wonder. How did others not mistake him for having hypothermia! My own temperature had changed after my ghost-half awakened but, my core had gotten hotter, thus my own rise in temperature.

That was a fun thing to explain to the doctors since I was stuck at the hospital. How I had a temperature high enough to kill me yet I was perfectly healthy-looking. I finally convinced them that it was a side-effect of being hit by concentrated ecto-energy. It had worked, since my logic outweighed theirs when compared.

I stuck the thermometer in the boy's mouth as he waited patiently for it to be done. Even when looking almost all the way dead and being slightly delirious, he was still the same polite and courteous boy as ever I suppose. As soon as I heard the beep I looked at the screen while removing the gauge. Ninety-point-five. A three-and-a-half degree fever. I suppose it could have been worse.

"It bad?" I looked over at the teen who was just barely awake. How he was still talking and understanding everything perfectly was beyond me. Unless he thought he was dreaming or some such nonsense.

"Not as bad as it could have been. Only around a three-degree increase. Nothing to worry about," I reassured while breaking up an ice-pack before setting it on his head. His mouth twitched into another smile before he rubbed his eyes. I had to wonder if he had gotten any sleep at all. The body needed sleep for it to function correctly, which may have explained his odd behavior.

"That's good. Hey Vlad..." I looked over at the teen to see his eyes start to become desperate again. I knew what he was about to ask. I also knew he wouldn't like the answer, "It's not a dream, is it? Not some illusion, or ghost, or some half-baked plot of yours. They're really gone. Aren't they?"

I sighed while rubbing my own eyes with one hand before looking back at the boy again. He seemed calm, but underneath he was most likely wrapped in inner turmoil.

"Yes Daniel. The explosion really happened." I muttered while lifting one of his sleeves up and beginning to bandage one of his larger wounds, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed to do so.

"Thought so. What now?" I felt myself lose a few brain cells at the question. He was...Acting... Normal? Impossible, there is no way he could lose his family and still act perfectly normal if not a little melancholy.

I turned around with the full intent of telling him off, only to see his eyes again. They were dead. The spark that had always been there, full of life and adventure, that spark was now gone. Missing.

I see...

"Daniel," I began, wondering how best to phrase what I was about to say, "You can't pretend like this is no big deal. You can't bottle up your emotions and expect yourself to be alright."

"Yeah? Why not? Seemed like a pretty good choice compared to the others." I shook my head at the bitter chuckle that came from the teen's lips. This boy was indeed in need of help. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle the loss of his loved ones, so he locked up his emotions.

"Because Daniel, I did the same thing you're doing when I was hit by that stupid proto-portal..." I glanced back to see the shock on the teens face before I grabbed more bandages and propped him up into a sitting position. I started cleaning the wounds on his chest, noticing they weren't too bad, but still needed to be cleaned since infection looked like it was about to set in soon.

"Well, it worked for you didn't it? You're still normal. Granted a little twisted but...normal." I sighed at the boys logic. I was beginning to get irritated though I tried not to show it. Having a sister like Jasmine who studied physiology, he should have known already what bottling up emotions can do to your mind. My irritation might have had a bit to do with being called twisted. Not very much, just a smidgeon at most.

"Normal," I felt myself let out a bitter chuckle like the boy had done himself earlier, "Oh yes. Being bitterly alone, seeking revenge on my old college buddy and roommate. Trying to steal the woman he married who, in my crazed mind, should have been mine. Trying to convince you to turn on your father and join me as my apprentice and son. Yes Daniel. I'm _perfectly_ normal."

I saw the teen's eyes get a little sadder, as if he was realizing his last chance was being pulled away from him. It hurt me to see him like this but...It was better than seeing him become something worse. Something like me.

"You always say you're right. That you are perfectly sane and normal. Now you're admitting you're, well...Messed up. Why?" I sighed at the boy's desperation to be proven wrong, that I was indeed fine and that bottling up his emotions and memories was fine. I reached for more antiseptic before trying to find the words to explain.

Was I really ready to tell him? To tell him the darkness I had discovered myself. Admit all the times I had been wrong and all the regrets I had because of it due to something that had stared at me in the face yet I overlooked it. All because of my proud nature.

No. I wasn't ready to tell him that. Maybe one day, but no today. "Death has a funny way of changing everyone Daniel. Some see qualities in the ones that are now gone, ones that they had never noticed or had forgotten. Some blame themselves and become desperate and sullen. Others...others see their mistakes...all the ones they've made concerning the ones that are gone."

I watched the boy's eyes start to gain understanding as I began wrapping his torso in the bandages. "Yeah? Well some don't want to admit that the ones they love are gone. That the ones they could have saved are gone. That it's that person's fault..." I finished tying off the bandages before standing up and trying to make sense of the boy's rant. What was he talking about. He was speaking as if he was the one who had-

"Dan-" I stared in shock at the_ empty _bed. The boy was gone. I didn't even notice my eyes widen in shock or the black rings that flew up around me as I quickly turned intangible and phased through the floor, praying to find that boy. He was not getting away that easily.

"Daniel! I know what you're thinking and you're wrong!" How could the boy possibly think that this was all his fault? The explosion was an accident! Nothing less, nothing more. Why must that damn hero-complex always show up at the worst of times?

_You know nothing!_ I shivered at the sudden words that were hissed in a mere whisper. They sounded quite far away, which meant the boy was planning to escape as a human. Smart, since he knew if he changed into his ghost-half that I would be able to find him and track him down in a split second.

That didn't mean that he was getting away though! The hissed words had come from outside, which meant he was probably heading towards the forest. I rushed out and phased through the thick walls before searching the grounds for any sign of movement. A flick of tangible teen. _Anything _to point to where he was. My eyes narrowed as I saw a flock of birds suddenly take of from a tree some distance into the forest.

Only a few things made birds suddenly take off from the trees like that, and I'm willing to bet a teenaged powered ghost is one of them. I honed in on the tree and trained my sight and hearing to try and find the teen. He was most likely being as cautious as possible, being that ghosts had increased hearing and sight compared to that of humans.

Even our human sides had an increase in senses, although it was weaker than the ghost side, and I was counting on that fact as I faded into invisibility. No way was that boy getting away after two straight weeks of searching for him and worrying myself to the other half of my death!

I smirked as I heard a crunch of leaves underfoot and harsh breathing. The idiotic boy probably didn't even have enough strength to switch to his ghost side and fly out of here! That was most likely his reason for staying human. Not to elude my ghost sense, but because he didn't have the energy to spare.

So much for being clever I suppose. My eyes widened in slight surprised when I saw his own invisibility flicker before he faded into the visible spectrum. Either he thought I was far enough away to where I wouldn't be able to find and chase him. Or, this one being more likely, he was too exhausted to keep it up. Which wouldn't be surprising as being invisible in human form takes more energy than most of the other more minor powers.

"Dammit! Can't even go ghost," I rolled my eyes at the teen muttering to himself. Even if he was visible there was still a chance I couldn't have found him. Him muttering to himself made others aware of him though. That boy still had much to learn it seemed.

"Can't that fruitloop worry about some other half-ghost teen! Wait..." Yes. He was _very_ delusional, "Argh! Why do I always have to confuse myself! As if yelling at a stupid voice-thought-thing isn't enough, now I'm talking to myself why running away from Plasmius!

"What's even worse than that? Oh, I know, not knowing how to feel about everyone dying! I don't even know if I'm sad, angry, ticked or what? ARGH! CLOCKWORK! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING! WHY THE HELL DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? YOU SAID THAT IT HAD BEEN FIXED AND WOULDN'T HAPPEN?"

I shook my head at the teens yelling. Even if I hadn't spotted those birds I still would have located him due to his insistent yelling. Although...He did have a lot of pent-up frustration by the sounds of it. This was probably good for him, in the long run anyways.

"AND WHY THE HECK AM I SHOUTING TO THE MASTER OF TIME ON MY ARCH-ENEMY'S FREAKING PROPERTY?" Wait. He had said Clockwork earlier. Did he mean _the_ Clockwork. The Master of Time who was said to hold the power to control all of time and resided in the Ghost Zone.

How did Daniel know of him? What's more, did he know of Clockwork, or did he _know_ Clockwork? Daniel was indeed a unique child. I think as long as he is around my life will never be dull again.

"Maybe if I just make a break for it I can get far enough to where he can't track me," Daniel frowned while getting ready to sprint away. I had to smile at his attempts. Like I was letting him leave that easily. I quickly erected a pink dome of energy the moment he closed his eyes and started to sprint. I must say, he was getting quite fast from what I saw before he ran into the dome.

"Okay Plasmius, you can come out now." I smirked at the teen's tone of voice. Sometimes being the _villain _as Daniel put it, really could be entertaining and fun.

"My my Daniel, you should know me better by now," I smirked while landing on the ground before placing my hands on my hips and looking at him sternly, all traces of amusement gone, "Explain."

"You know...You really look like an angry scolding parent when you do that." Daniel muttered while looking at me with a sense of amusement and guilt. That last one surprised me. Daniel never felt guilt for anything he did when around me. Ever. I just stood silently waiting for an answer. I knew the boy well enough by now that trying to pry one out of him was disastrous. If I just waited silently however, than-

"It's not my fault! I didn't know what was gonna happen! I was asleep in my room before I woke up and took a shower! After I was yelling at this stupid voice that said I would turn evil, but I promised I wouldn't due to an alternate time-line that you have no clue about because you were never there. Well you were by _you_ weren't. After that I suddenly felt really sick and hot and than the picture broke and my skin felt like it was on fire and there was smoke in the sky! I flew really fast but when I got there I couldn't do anything! I didn't even stay! I ran like a coward!

"Once I calmed down and realized they were gone I started freaking out! They were gone and I hadn't been there to save them! I should've saved them Vlad, but I couldn't! I had the feeling that they were in trouble when I woke up but I didn't pay any attention and now it's too late and I couldn't even help them! So I kept flying and flying! I ran into the Guys-in-White at one point which is how I got that gash on my chest.

"After that I barely ate or slept, I just kept flying cause I was scared if I stopped than I would never see them again cause they'd be gone and I would have admitted it and I DON'T WANT TO ADMIT IT DAMMIT! I tried to get into the Ghost Zone but there were no portals around so I just kept flying, avoiding any ghosts I ran into and trying to escape from the Guys-in-White who were pursuing me. Than I fell asleep ans woke up facing the road entering Wisconsin so I thought that for some weird reason that maybe I'd be safe with you.

"I thought it was stupid at first but since there was no one else to turn to I knew that you were my only option because, because, I DON'T KNOW WHY! JUST BECAUSE MAN! So I kept flying towards your mansion, trying to avoid any of your stupid helper ghosts before I finally got attacked by the Guys-in-White again, which is how I got this wound on my arm. After I escaped just barely I managed to use the rest of my strength to get as far as the river in the forest. After that, well, that was when you found me and I finally realized just what had happened to everyone and admitted it to myself.

"So now I'm stuck in a pink bubble dome thing and I'm hundred or even thousands of miles from home and I can't go back there! What's worse is that I don't know how to feel about them dying and leaving me because I can't really wrap my mind around it but when I do I know I'll go into a state of depression and end up turning evil and trying to kill you so you should probably let me go and trap me in the Ghost Zone or a thermos and lock me up next to him cause I'll be no better and...

"Vlad? Hey, Vlad. You okay?"

I stared at the boy with a blank look. He had his hands on the dome and was leaning against it wearily and looked slightly relieved to get all of that off his chest. Not only was he attacked, he was trying to run away from the truth of his family and friends being gone so he had come to me. The cheese-head arch-rival who he hated quite a bit.

"Err Vlad. . . You alright? Didn't overload your brain, did ya?" I noticed that there was a small smirk trying to work it's way onto Daniel's face while his eyes, instead of the dead look, had a small tiny spark of humor. Yes. No matter what, Daniel was still Daniel.

"I'm fine little badger. Just trying to figure out a few things."

"Such as?"

"Well. In order. Why you would blame yourself for something that was out of your control. Why you were born to be so reckless damn. Why the Guys-in-White kept following you cross-country. Who is this Clockwork you keep ranting about. Why you woke up in front of the sign to Wisonsin with no memory of going there. Why you think you'll turn evil. Why you want me to lock you up in a thermos before you have a breakdown and try to kill me. And finally, why you came to me..."

"Wow. That's a lot of wondering," I raised an eyebrow at the tone of voice Daniel used. It sounded like he was trying to be sarcastic, but he ended up sounding as if he was about to drop dead from exhaustion.

"Tired?" I couldn't help but tease him a little. It was just so easy how innocent he was. And his reactions were always something to make me smile.

"Not really. Just, uh...Give me a second and I'll come up with a really good excuse." I had to work to suppress a laugh, the smile though, was too hard to hide. I suppose I could question him later about some of the points of his ranting and explanations.

"Well than, since you're not tired, I suppose you just want to stay awake and talk some more," I asked while watching the teen's reaction. What can I say? It's just too fun.

"Uh, well, you see...I...I...I have a fever! Which means even though I'm not tired at all, I still need bed-rest!" I had to shake my head at the boy's attempts to come up with an excuse to not stay awake. I suppose I've teased him enough for one day.

"Alright Mister Not-tired. Let's get back to the mansion. Since you are sick, you do need rest," I manged to hide most of my sarcasm as I waved a hand and got rid of the pink dome encasing the teen, causing him to stumble before I caught him again.

"Ugh, I hate being weak," I heard him mutter before I sighed and carried him back towards the mansion by the back of his shirt. I had a feeling that if I tried to carry him in my arms he would put up much more of a fuss than last time around, "Stupid show-off..."

I had to resist the urge to laugh at how angry the teen was at being carried off like a child. I suppose he wouldn't enjoy it one bit. My amusement soon disappeared as I started to think back on all that had happened. Daniel was alone. All his family and friends had died. Even his teacher and classmates! He wouldn't go back to Amity. Not for a long time at least. He would see reminders of his loved ones everywhere.

I phased into the guest bedroom before placing the teen on the bed and giving him another icepack to use. His wounds were probably hurting pretty bad since the weapons those idiot Guys-in-White used hurt both humans and ghosts. Which meant twice the pain when you where half of each. This teen would never have it easy.

As if being cursed with being half-ghost wasn't enough, he had been put through more than any teenager should. Facing opponents who could have easily killed him if he wasn't careful. Having to hide his secret from everyone while his powers were new and unstable. Living in a house of ghost-hunters and still trying to keep up with school and keep the town safe from the daily ghost attacks!

This boy had put up with so much, and his strength came from his loved ones. Even I had seen that from all the times I had been around him. He was always able to stay happy and optimistic thanks to those he loved. And now, that pillar of strength had been taken from him for no reason. The fates really do have something against us if they go as far as to break out spirits.

And now he was ranting about being dangerous when he woke up and most likely trying to kill me. As if this boy could ever be anything but the hero. He was too kind and innocent to hurt anyone. Even the ghosts he never truly hurt. He just captured them and put them back in the Ghost Zone.

"Oh Daniel. What's happened to you..." I whispered as I looked back at the teen, who looked to have fallen asleep. I sat on the edge of the bed before brushing his hair away from the icepack. I was surprised when the teen cracked an eye open and smiled bitterly.

"I pressed a stupid button. . ."

* * *

Isn't that line epic? No? Maybe it was just me...Anyways! I hoped you enjoyed this. Don't worry, broken and insane Danny comes next chapter. It shall be wonderful! I think. I have no clue where this is going half the time. All I know is that it has twists that made me think I was high on sugar and caffine when I wrote it out. Sad, right? And to think in the old version of this Vlad was the main villain. How mean of me, Vladdie rules!

Okay, I think that's pretty much it. I may not update too soon cause I have other stories I'm working on as well as I became a Beta for TK! Woo! Twin Kats has awesome stories and I'm beta'ing her Of Lightning Bolts, Half-Ghosts, and Time Piece story. Long title I know, but it is really funny and full of crack humor that will make you laugh and love it. So if you need a laugh, go check her out! Now!

Review if you want too. I don't mind if ya do or not, I don't think authors should threaten not to update cause they don't get reviews...That's just stupid. So my policy is do what you like, I'm just typing to improve my writing. Don't worry though, I'll update before the third week of March...Hopefully...Yeaaahhh. I should run and hide now. Also, if you read the-other-ghostwriter's fics, you'll know who Andrew its.

Deadlydaisy8o8, you might know how the bookshelves and vase got tipped over. How the first-aid kit was where it needed to be. And why Danny woke up in front of the sing to Wisconsin. You're the one who made me realize how sneaky that ghost can be. Whoops, I've said too much! No, not really.


	6. Time's View

~ Note : Pearl-sensei had a Vlad muse to help her write fics like Checkmate. Daisy probably has muses as well, just not sure yet. Me. My muse? Can you guess him?

Here's a hint. He Master of all Time and loves giving plot twists and cliffhangers. He also loves to see Danny win and hates the Observants. That's ri~ght~! CLOCKWORK MUSE! I love 'em. He just came into form tonight! After countless hours of telling me what to type, he is now going to sit down with me and help me out as much as he can.

Way better than evil villain Vlad muse. Sorry Pearl-sensei, but Clockwork is better in my opinion. After all, he can see what will be popular with the readers and won't be! Can Vlad do that? -snickers-

A/C ~ Sorry it's shorter than the last one, but it can't be too long or else it'd be ramblings. So...Yeah. Enjoy. Also, I should warn you, there may be a few things in here about Fenton and Phantom that might confuse you with the way Clockwork speaks of the two. As if they're seperate people. Just roll with it for now. I know what I"m doing. I hope...

Kay, seeya at the bottom folks!

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**Chapter Six – Time's Point of View**

Daniel James Fenton. Half-Ghost. Half-Human. Has dreams of wanting to become an astronaut for the NASA space program. Does poorly in school, both socially and academically, due to his ghost-fighting career. Cares deeply for his home town and all of his loved ones. He has avoided taking a dark path once in his life, but I fear that the choice once again presents itself to him. This time, I cannot help the young halfling. As much as I wish I could be there for him, he must face this trial on his own strength.

Things are beginning to change rapidly in the Ghost Zone. The energy that was once used to keep the realm stable is now slowly falling apart while deep tremors are being felt by every ghost, young and ancient alike. I fear that my powers will no longer be enough to keep the Ghost Zone stable. Something must be done to save both this realm and that of the humans from collapsing in on itself, and destroying all life.

To think that the realms are now starting to fall apart. At a random point in history. A point where the whole future rides on one person alone. As soon as the realms started to tear and crumble, disaster soon followed. Something worse than the realms ending. Even worse than Daniel's becoming evil. The one-eyed know-it-all's taking action.

This is when the Observants choose to intervene. They held a long and tedious council meeting to decide the best course of action. Through some stupid suggestion by one of them, they have decided to kill off Daniel Fenton's loved ones, thus driving him into a state of depression and delirium. They did this for two reasons, or so they say.

One, was to kill the boy's ghostly obsessions, which would thus free him from the Human Realm. The other, was to drive him to his death, which would allow him to become a full ghost and cross over to the Realm in which he was needed most.

I have my, high, suspicions that they did it for a third reason as well. They had ordered me to kill the boy some time ago. Of course, I disobeyed them and instead helped the boy and taught him a valuable lesson about life. This of course angered the Observants, prompting the need for revenge. Even if they are ancients themselves, the Observants are still ghosts. They still feel the need and drive for revenge. They still have obsessions like all ghosts do.

That is why they want Daniel destroyed. Body and soul. Because he defied their obsessions. The obsession being that they were always right when it came to the time-line. That they knew best out of all others.

I as well, had defied them in that aspect, but I couldn't be harmed by their petty need for revenge. They knew that all too well. I might have to serve them, but they forget the reasons why I chose to do so.

So they project their rage onto the one person they could successfully torment. A young halfling who barely knew the ways of the world, yet knows much more than others of his age. He knew how the real world worked, but that didn't mean he was ready to be thrust into it virtually on his own. Which was why I had helped him when presented with the _in_direct opportunity.

I may have been forbidden direct contact with the boy himself, but they never said anything about indirect contact. And coming from me, I know just how powerful small events combined together can aid someone. I've done it enough times over the years...You think those foolish one-eyed idiots would have stopped me by now. I suppose they were ignorant and thought I could do nothing to help the boy. How wrong they were.

I knew of only one person inside the human realm who would be able to help Daniel after his loved ones had perished. Or would perish I suppose. I do not try very hard to keep track of where the current time is. Only this person would be able to understand and heal that boy's pain. For he had gone through much of the same pain himself. Or, he would go through the pain.

Vladimir Damian Masters. Half-Ghost. Half-Human. Has many dreams that are now crushed and no longer followed. Has possessed ghost powers for over twenty years. Has had his obsessions crushed by the blasted Observants as well. He would be able to see what was wrong with the boy and help him heal and become whole again. Vladimir Masters has taken many dark paths himself in life, but that's why he is such a good choice to help the boy.

Vladimir truly knew of the evils of the world, he knows because he has seen most of them himself. He can protect Daniel from what the boy will need protecting from, and he can teach Daniel the inner strength he will need to survive this ordeal. Truly, this man was the best choice to take care of both Daniel _and_ Phantom.

Yet, with every good choice, there is a chance of failure. And if Daniel fails, there will be no turning back the clock this time. I have made that very clear to him. There is _only _second chances. Fate is not something to gamble with. It never was. Never is. Never will be.

Daniel knows this all too well. I taught it to him, after all. What I fear however, is that he might forget that. I fear the grief will be too great for him to handle on his own, and that the future he fought so hard to avoid, will happen to him. I fear, as does he, that he will become evil and destroy the Realms before they collapse in on themselves.

Time is flowing. It is ever-changing, ever-moving, and never stopping. Choices are what decide the future, as such, many futures lay themselves out in front of me. Some look as if they are about to happen and are set in stone, but than they change due to one small choice. Daniel himself has proven that over and over to me many times.

The future is always changing, as such, it is all I can do to assure myself that Daniel will be alright. For as I watch the future closely, the only thing I see happening is him choosing that dark path. No matter what I look for, the only future I see for Daniel, is him becoming his evil future self. That is why I sent him to Vlad. Even if it is just half of that one percent, he needs the chance to avoid that fate. Although others would disagree with me, saying that sending him to Vlad would only increase his chances of turning evil.

Those people, did not see Time as I did. All, is as it should be. Sending him to Vlad will be the right thing. _Is_ the right thing. _Was_ the right thing. Even if it should end badly, I have no regrets of what I have done. Of what I will do.

So, that was why I broke his family picture when he was curled up in pain, ignoring his senses that screamed to him that something was wrong. I had to show him that he had trouble to face in his future, and that it was time for him to leave.

I watched as he flew to the Nasty Burger and saw the faces of his loved ones. I heard his heart-wrenching scream of despair before he flew away. I had sighed before twirling the Time Scepter slowly and jumping forward in Time to the next place and time I would be needed. Not even I could keep up with how fast he was going. His despair and rage had fueled him.

I followed him after that and did my best to keep any malevolent ghosts away from him while he was in this weak and broken state. I than led the Guys-in-White to his locations, hoping to push him towards Wisconsin. Towards his enemy's home.

I was careful to make sure they never overpowered Daniel. So when he became to weak to dodge, the hunters would find him suddenly disappearing from their scanners, or their weapons malfunctioning unexpectedly. All the while I was pushing events forward to lead him to Vladimir's. Stubborn boy that he is of course, he ended up going in circles while running from the Guys-in-White, as if he was unsure of where he was supposed to go.

That was better than him flying in the opposite direction I suppose. It meant he was undecided. It meant he still considered going to Vladimir's. It meant he still had a choice to make.

Since I knew the boy wouldn't go to his enemy's without a sign, I waited till the boy fell asleep before carrying him and setting him down outside the border to Wisconsin. Daniel was a smart boy, he does not ignore his instinct. Not when it has saved his life many times. And especially after meeting me. He knows how mysterious Time and Fate can be, so he knows to listen to what his instincts tell him.

When he woke up he spotted the sign and began hovering back and forth over the border. It was quite amusing to watch. After an hour of him hovering indecisively he began hesitantly heading towards Vladimir's. There were a few times he became slightly lost however. He ended up traveling in circles many times before finally finding a map I had left on the side of the road.

The boy was always making me chuckle at how child-like he could act at sometimes. There were times I had to guide him subtly however, doing my hardest to help and not alert him or the Observants to my presence. It was quite fun to see how confused Daniel was when something started going right, or he found one of my little clues.

He would have reached the elder halfling's estate easily had not those blasted Guys-in-White caught up to him again. I was hoping to push him forward fast enough to avoid any kind of meeting with them, but, not even I can control events when I have such limitations on how I may interact with the boy and his surrounding environment.

After being cornered from the Guys-in-White he was shot in the arm with a barbed spike and had the wound on his chest reopened. He fought back as best he could, screaming when he ripped the spike out before it exploded after being thrown into the air.

I suppose him ripping the spike out like that was partially my fault. On his last lesson I had foreseen this possibility and had him do dodging practice that day. He had been hit by a barbed spike and had tried to wrench it out only to make the wound even worse.

I than had told him that if he was struck with a barbed spike it was a bad idea to pull it out as it could worsen the wound. As the boy learned by it happening, as usual with him. Than I told him it was alright if it was about to explode, than getting it out would be better.

It was nice to see the boy still remembered my subtle warnings. When I had first spoken of it, the boy had grown pale before muttering on how a proper warning would be better than subtle hints that made no sense whatsoever.

A few seconds after pulling the spike out the boy had finally lost too much blood to stay air-borne and began falling towards the waiting guns of the hunters. This of course, was not something I would stand for. Ever.

So I had quickly froze time before catching him and destroying all of the ecto-scanners. I than began carrying him to the river-bend behind the stables of Vladimir's mansion where the two would eventually meet. It was tricky from there to try and find a way to get the man to find the teen after he had just went inside.

As such I was left with very few options on how to get his attention without drawing attention to myself. One of those choices being a coincidental falling of his shelf of ghost books and an expensive vase.

I usually tend to avoid using destruction to get a person's attention, but, Vladimir Masters was a stubborn man. Besides, he was so caught up in his thoughts of Daniel, I doubt that anything less than large noises of breaking objects would draw him back into the real world.

I stayed invisible and undetectable as Vladimir in Plasmius form slowly flew into the library, as if he was dreading what he might find broken and unrepairable. I saw as he tried to suppress a cringe at the state some of his books were now in from the fall.

I do admit, I might have gone a tad overboard on the destruction. Than again, I'm sure dear Andrew wouldn't mind fixing up the ones that were worse for wear. The only thing that ghost hates worse than others hurting books, is seeing the books stay broken.

I watched as Plasmius found the book I had set down on the shelf before he came in, as if it too fell over. It was quite amusing to see him looking back and forth between the fallen shelf and to where the book was usually shelved.

His declaration of finding out what was going on when he got back was also quite amusing, as if he had expected to find some wayward ghost hiding in his library. I doubt his thoughts went straight to the powerful Master of Time, who was hardly more than a ghostly legend.

I wonder if he thought he was hearing things after hearing my chuckle. Probably dismissed it as him getting a lack of sleep. Then again, that man was proud if nothing else. He would never admit that something like lack of sleep would make him hear things. Nor would he admit to hearing voices. This much I knew for certain. I should most likely be more careful around him. He is far more perceptive than Daniel is. Or will ever be. That I _was_ sure of.

I watched from the large stained-glass window as Plasmius quickly flew into the forest to find Daniel, smiling when I saw the ghost drop his book from the air before hesitantly lowering himself to the ground and talking into a small communicator.

The man probably hadn't even noticed that his book had fallen into the river. I do so hope he won't mention that to Andrew if he remembers. He would probably be bound and gagged with ecto-chains before being lectured on the proper care for books.

I mused on my excessive thoughts before floating up into the guest bedroom which Vladimir would most likely use for the boy before setting a first-aid kit onto the bedside table. Hopefully the man wouldn't realize that the antiseptic and antibiotic cream was used to speed up a ghost's healing abilities as well as a human's.

What? I may have been forced to let young Daniel get hurt, but that didn't mean I wouldn't help him the second I got the chance. I suppressed a sigh at the thought of what was to come next before phasing back outside and waiting for the two to finish their talk before Daniel ran off.

It wasn't long before the two halflings were once again outside, the elder tracking down the younger. I, of course, gave him a hand by startling the birds out of a young sapling. The effect was instantaneous as Plasmius flew towards the spot while quickly fading into invisibility.

I slightly smiled before waving my staff and going through a portal into my lair. I could do nothing more for the two at the moment. Only they could help themselves now. My expression turned black as I watched Daniel's rants and yelling, most of the yelling directed at me. If only he knew just how much I wanted to help him, but was unable to.

During his long-winded explanation, Daniel had mentioned the alternate time-line that Vlad had been in but also _hadn't_ been in. Centuries of practice allowed me to keep my outward neutral appearance, but on the inside I was smiling warmly at how Daniel always told the truth when he was feeling guilty.

It was one of the many things about the boy that had made him develop his hero-complex. Something I was in agreement with Vladimir about. That complex was truly troublesome for the boys at times. Fenton and Phantom always were the heroes, even when beaten, bloody and brusied.

I waved the Time Scepter before looking back to the main screen and the surrounding ones. All of the screens held pictures of Daniel on them. Some showed past events, some of what was happening now, but the majority held pictures of what was to come.

"Clockwork!" It took more effort than usual to keep my aggravated sigh in. Didn't those damn Observants ever think of knocking? Just once. "You broke your oath Clockwork!"

"And which oath would that be?" I asked while fiddling with the Time Scepter. Again. I seemed to have formed a habit of readjusting the gears when I had _unpleasant_ company.

"This is serious Clockwork!" the one who had spoken first half-yelled. The large eye was narrowed into a fierce glare. It wasn't very hard since the eye took up their whole face. The one next to the first one seemed to understand a silent signal as he took over from there.

"You swore an oath that you would not interfere with that boy this time!" I had to suppress a smirk at how easily the two were angered. If they had more control over their temper, they might accomplish more than glaring and annoying me to oblivion.

Of course, me annoying them was just payback in my mind. Call it lingering affections for a former pupil, but I did not like Daniel being addressed as 'that boy'.

"If I remember correctly, I vowed that I would not reveal myself to the boy until he is ready. I also vowed that I would not directly attempt to intervene with his life," I replied back in the monotone and dull voice I used mainly on them. I think young Daniel had been one of the few persons, ghost or human, to figure out that that was the voice I used when I was heavily aggravated.

"Exactly!"

"You interfered!"

"You lied Clockwork!" I had to sometimes wonder just how they were always in perfect sync like that. Did they practice or were they just simply that annoying?

"Please elaborate. I fail to see what I did wrong," I spoke before turning around, my form changing from that of a child to that of an old man before I cut off any response or comment they about to say next, "If I recall, I did not interfere with him directly. I merely _influenced_ a few unimportant events in the vicinity he had been in."

"You were meddling!" both of them shouted at the same time.

"Yes. I meddled. But I did not violate my oath," as I shifted back into my child form I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes as one of them scoffed. I sometimes wonder how they did that with no mouth. Truly a mystery, as Daniel had put it after one of their long-winded rants.

"Clockwork, you may think you can meddle but there is more at stake here than the last time!"

"That's right! If Daniel Fenton and Phantom become evil, we will all be doomed!"

"Yes, we will. Yet instead you want me to flat out kill him. That is much better," I muttered darkly, trying to keep my emotions under control as I shifted back into my adult form, the one I preferred using most.

"If it means saving the realms-"

"Than yes!" Again, perfect unison. Not that I was impressed. It was a feeling that wore off after the first meeting with them. Something I was quick to discover.

"I know what I am doing. All is as it should be. Neither Fenton nor Phantom will turn evil, nor will I outright kill him just to save your hides," I hissed the last part slightly before turning around, "I do not feel the need to follow your every stipulation that you come up with just so you have the illusion that you are all-powerful and in control!"

"Illusion!"

"Careful Clockwork, your words border on blasphemy!" Those one-eyed cretins...They know nothing! Nothing of what these boys had gone through and what they must go through. Nothing of what their fate is to be! And yet they still think they know what is best!

"Foolish ancients..." I muttered, not even bothering to smirk when I saw the Observants shocked expressions. "Do not forget that I am the Master of Time! Time cannot be controlled and harnessed to use as you see fit! Nor can I! Do not fail to forget the reasons that I choose to work for you! I am not some lackey that you can push around like your mindless guards!"

Maybe I was going a bit too far since my Time Scepter was swirling with blue energy in sync to my emotions. As I glanced over at the Observants shocked and angry expressions, I remembered something Daniel had told me at one of our training sessions.

_Why do you work for them anyways? You probably have way more power than all of them combined! If I were you I would stand up to them, even if it only lasts for a few weeks, they'd still avoid you for a while. All ya gotta do is show off your awesome powers...You know you want to Clockwork._

Yes. I did want to. Very much so, "Now, if that is all, I believe that you should take your leave," I hissed before waving my scepter and watching the two's ghostly outlines and eye glow blue for a split-second before disappearing.

It looked like Klemper would get some new friends to play with for the next few days or so. Especially since Daniel had removed the handle to his realm a few weeks ago. I'd make sure to reattach the handle eventually...Well, I'm sure the other Observants would find those two sooner or later.

I suppose I might have overdone it a tad. I waved my Time Scepter again as the images on the screens all changed. I wonder what Daniel would think of me sending those two to Klemper. Probably laugh and get me to record what would happen. I sighed to myself while changing into my ancient form. I suppose those blasted Observants got one thing right.

I really was too attached to the boy. Far too attached.

"_I pressed a stupid button..."_ I looked on sadly as I watched Vladimir's startled expression and Daniel's tired and bitter one.

"If only it were that simple Daniel...It was far more than merely pressing a button..." It was almost comical at times. How much Fate was against this one boy. He had endured so much in his short sixteen years. Yet he endured it all with a smile and an optimistic attitude. And that is one of the rarest things in a human being.

I should know. I have seen the past. The present. The future. For me, time shall always move forwards. And it shall always move backwards. Time is ever moving. Ever flowing. And now this one boy, one single boy, had affected the time stream like no other before him. In all my years of existence, I had never met a boy quite like him. And I will never meet a boy like him again.

So, is it really that unimaginable that I would get attached to the boy? Strange certainly. But not impossible. I had met many ghosts and humans throughout my life, and will meet many more. Yet I have never met, nor ever will meet, anyone else quite like Daniel Fenton.

I'm not surprised. After all, the turning point of all the realms now rests on his shoulders. If he can't bare it, than I don't believe anyone will be able to. It's all up to him now. Well, I suppose he will always have Phantom to lean upon when he discovers just how important the ghost part of him is.

Yet no one else will be able to help him until he realizes this. Not I, nor Vladimir, nor any other ghost or human. All I can do at this point is watch. As I have done since Time began, and as I will do till Time shall end.

"_CLOCKWORK! YOU SAID YOU FIXED IT! THAT I WOULD GET A SECOND CHANCE...!WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME CLOCKWORK? WHY?" _Danny...

"_Phantom needs to die...No. If Phantom leaves, he'll turn evil. No, I'll turn evil...I can't get rid of Phantom. I can't die. I won't. I PROMISED!" _I am so sorry Danny.

"_C-Clockwork...what am I supposed to do...?" _

And so, all the events have been set into play. With this, the story now truly begins. . .

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Okay. I was gonna wait till Saturday to give this to you all, but I was so bored so you get it a few days early. How lucky are you! Anyways, hoped you liked it. The last few lines/paragraphs are probably making you go crazy with questions, right? Good! You won't get answers till like...Whoa. You're never gonna get answers at this rate ha ha ha! I'm gonna go hide now! Bye!

**Weakling. She can handle a few flames. Tell ya what, threaten to kill her if she dosen't update soon. She doesn't get her axe back until March 26th anyways ha ha!**

Shut up Kit!


	7. Shattered Phantom

**Okay. Since the last chapter was so short, even though it was only two days ago, I'm updating. Be warned you won't get another chapter as quick now, but you guys are so greedy I don't think you'll care. After all, this one is gonna be a lot bigger than the last chapter... Try...**

**16,438 words and 28 pages. How much do ya love me now? I worked on this the whole time since I uploaded the last chapter! Are you impressed? You better be! I am so happy with this chapter. I love it all, starting with the chapter title and ending with the last line! Man, you guys are in for shocks, thrills and things that you would have _never _seen coming! I hope you are all prepared for this chapter. Are ya? Huh? Nope. You're not.**

**You are not prepared. Whoa, WoW joke there. Sorry, minds a little screwy after typing all of this up! But it's finally done...and I am so proud of this...I don't think I'll ever get over of how proud I am of myself writing 28 pages. If you are wondering why I am now writing such long chapters...It was Pearl and Daisy's faults! They write such huge chapters, so I wanted to be more like them...*giggles* Man, I am so pumped to see and hear what you guys think of this!**

**Seeya at the bottom! Sorry for the long author's notes. Also, thank you all for those who commented! You know who you are! Also, if I didn't respond to a review, good chance it was because it was anonymous. Woosh, okay, _now _I am done with the author's comments.**

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Chapter Seven – Shattered Phantom

Ugh. Just great. My head feels like I flew into a really thick wall. Made of bricks. As Phantom. Going at my top speed. Last time I had done something as stupid as that I had been in a coma for over a week. That hadn't been fun. Neither had explaining it to my parents on how I got a coma from running into a wall.

Okay. Enough going down memory lane with a headache. First, I need to devise a cover story as to why I'm most likely in the hospital. Just gotta figure out what happened first. Where the heck am I anyways? Eyes squint open. Excruciating pain. Major headache. Very uncomfortable nausea. Yeah. _Definitely_ felt like coming out of a coma.

I shifted around the bed I was currently in, whether it was mine or the hospital's I had no clue. I was trying to move just far enough to try and see my clock, any clock, so I could check the time. Lo and behold, I couldn't move. At all. Not a single muscle. Well, that meant something pretty serious must have happened to mess me up this badly. Wait. If I can't move my body than why can I wiggle my fingers and toes? Growing up with a health nut like Jazz, that made no sense. At all.

Wiggling around some more in the bed and squinting my eyes open it was a relief to see that the lights weren't as bright as I first thought they might have been. In fact, they were pretty dim and comfortable on the eyes. A second later I found out why my body hadn't been able to move. Thick, really thick, heavy blankets were wrapped around me. Tightly. Well, suppose it could have been worse.

Wait. My blankets own were blue. And the hospital's were white. Neither were a satin red like these. And...was that silk sheets...? My bed sure as heck wasn't this comfortable! Mine felt like lumps of vegetables after all the years I had slept on it. And the hospital's were usually worse than mine! This one felt like, as stupid as it sounded, like a fluffy cloud. God I was so glad Tucker wasn't here to hear me say anything like that. Tucker!

A gasp of pain tore from my lips as I jolted up. Okay, sitting up too quickly, bad. Very bad. Ugh. Forget the coma, it felt like I had been hit by one of the new more painful ecto-weapons, by my parents. Hit by Mom, which meant triple the pain than if anyone else had shot at me. A flash of movement and my eyes were drawn to the one person I _hadn't _expected to see in my bedroom.

Vlad. What the heck was he doing in my room? Wait. My...room? Scanning the surroundings and reacting in less than a second was something most humans found hard. Hence a human's slow reaction time. I on the other hand...Well, in the two seconds since I had first fully opened my eyes I managed to gather a few things about what was going on.

Vlad was sitting in a chair and holding a boring-looking book. I guess he had been reading it before he had heard my gasp of pain. I wasn't in my bed. This wasn't my room. Nor was it a hospital room. I was hurt and vulnerable and the only one besides me in the room was my arch-nemesis who could defeat me while hardly trying when I was at _full_ strength.

Yeah. Deduction, not good. So I did the first thing that popped into my weary and tired mind. Get into a defensive position and scan all nearby surroundings to see what could be of use in case of a fight. I saw a flicker of surprise and amusement on the cheese-head's face when I felt myself jump off the bed and into a standard defensive position. One that Mom had taught me in case I ever had to face a ghost on my own. Oh the irony of _that._

"Feeling better?" God that man can be so annoying! I mean, here I am, practically at his _mercy_ and he asks me if I'm feeling better? What the heck kind of super-villain was he? I mean, he didn't even have plans to take over the town! Let alone the world...

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. Now, what kind of plot are you devising this time Plasmius?" I more hissed than asked really. Hey, you would be freaking out and acting pretty rude too if you suddenly woke up in your arch-rival's home/mansion with no memory of how you got there and some pretty serious wounds on you. Ones that you don't remember getting.

Ones that hurt when you suddenly jump up out of bed and into a black-belt karate position that was used to bring down opponents of twice your size and strength. Okay, maybe that hadn't been one of my better ideas. Or the smartest thing to do.

"Far be it from me to tell you what to do Daniel, but I really don't think you should be moving right now." Dang fruitloop. What, does he have some stupid new power where he reads minds too! That'd be just my kind of rotten luck...

"What the heck do you want this time Vlad? And why am I in your house?" I was practically yelling at this point, suppose that was the result of me trying _not_ to show just how much that little acrobatic stunt had messed with my wounds. Whatever my wounds _were_.

"You...don't remember? Anything?" The look of shock and surprise on Vlad's face made me _really_ suspicious. The look of worry that went with the shock and surprise just made me worry myself even more. What didn't I remember and why didn't I remember it?

"Remember what? I was walking home with Sam and Tucker from school than nothing! What the heck did you do! You're planning on making me your son again aren't you! I keep telling you Plasmius, it will _never _work! I am not going to be your son and no way can you keep me here against-"

"Would you shut your mouth for two blasted minutes boy! I am _trying _to figure out just what is wrong with you!" _What_ did he just say...

"What's wrong with me? I'm not the one who kidnaps innocent children off the streets and than drags them to their mansion with no memory of how the kid got huge freaking wounds that really hurt!" Vlad sighed with what I had guessed was aggravation or something close to it. Heh, guess his plan, whatever it was exactly, wasn't going as planned! Take that V-man!

"Are you going to sit down or continue making yourself look foolish?" Whatever smirk I had on was gone the second I heard his stupid condescending tone. What the heck was he talking ab- I was still in my defense position...Dang it! I was so caught up in arguing with the fruitloop I forgot how much this position stretches the muscles, which is really painful when you have a huge gash on your chest and arm. Or at least, that's what it felt like.

"Fruitloop." Ugh! Lame! Out of all the things to say that's the best I can think of? So much for my acclaimed witty banter. I shuffled towards the edge of the bed, and away from Plasmius, before plopping down. Well, know I knew why the bed had been so comfy when I first woke up. Didn't mean I liked it though. Nope. I hated the stupid bed...

"Call me what you will Daniel, but I am not out to hurt you. I'm just trying to figure out why you can't remember anything-"

"Remember what?" Honestly, what was he talking about. School had ended and me and the guys were walking home together. After that, well, after that it was nothing but, nothing. I guess Vlad did something to knock me out and drag me back to Wisconsin with him. So why the heck was he so worried. If I was him I would be rubbing it in right now!

"What's the very last thing you remember?" Hadn't I already told him? Honestly, and he thinks I never listen to anyone.

"I told you ya fruitloop. I was walking home with Tucker and Sam after school. After that I don't remember much besides a really dull pain, as if I had hit the sidewalk or something. And I think someone shouting _Beware!_...What the heck...did I face the Box Ghost...?" Man, leaving out the weirdness of the Box Ghost, why the heck was I playing twenty questions with this guy?

I had to get home before Mom and Dad started worrying, and especially before Jazz and the guys started to worry. They would probably steal the Specter Speeder, again, and drive down to Wisconsin to get me back! That would be counter-productive at this point. Especially since I had no clue on what the heck was happening! Or what Plasmius wanted...

The only thing that them driving down here would do at this point would be to tick Vlad off even more than he was right now. And trust me, an angry Vlad is way more powerful than an annoyed Vlad. I should know after all the times I had ticked him off and than had to fight him afterwords. That had been a painful lesson to learn. Very painful.

I saw Vlad's lips moving but didn't really pay attention to what he was saying anymore. Something about an accident and two weeks or something. Probably talking about how long this plan took him or something. I went back to trying to concentrate and ignore all the pain I felt long enough to access my ghost-half when the words asleep and three days reached my ears. That...can't be good.

"Whoa! Back up! What?" I turned around and glared my hardest at the fruitloop. He looked a little shocked at my sudden outburst and glare but answered anyways. I kinda wished he hadn't.

"I said you had been passed out for three days. Which is odd considering you wounds weren't even that bad...It could have been attributed to the fever I suppose..." I stopped listening soon after I got the info I needed. Three days...Only one thing was for sure. Mom and Dad were going to be so angry at me when I finally did get back home. Okay, don't panic Fenton, don't panic. Deep breaths.

Jazz, Sam and Tucker probably covered for me as best as they could. It had been a Friday when I had been captured by Plasmius. So that meant today was Monday, I think. Brain is still a bit fuzzy for some reason. Hopefully the guys could think of some excuse as to why I wasn't in school. Had they come to try and bust me out? Had Vlad threatened them to stay away? More importantly, why the heck did the man look so sleep-deprived and worn-out.

It looked as if he hadn't slept in weeks. Two at the least. He also looked as if he had been worried to death during that whole time. Pun not intended for once. That didn't seem right. If he had captured me he would right now be looking his best and gloating as much as he possibly could. So why the heck wasn't-

"Daniel!" I felt myself jump in slight shock at the sharp and commanding tone, "Have you listened to a word of what I've said?" Wow, he sounded _really_angry. Way more angry than the usual annoying Plasmius. Best course of action. Truth or lie? Well, when I think of it like that, there's really only one course of action.

"Of course I have fruitloop! Do you really think I would space out when I have no clue what happened to me or why I'm at your place?" His expression said one thing. Yes. Yes I would. He had no idea how right he was. Knowing him though, he probably did. Stupid, know-it-all, annoying, cheese-headed, irritable, spiteful, in-need-of-a-cat, old-

"Daniel!"

"What!" I shouted back. Irritability was pretty much the only thing I was feeling any more. Forget stupid worry, if he wanted to do anything to me he would have done it by now! Ugh, he's still talking, he looks pretty angry this time too. Well, that leaves only one thing left for me to do.

Go ghost and get the heck out of here. No way was I staying here any longer. Tuning out the fruitloop's rambling even more than before I started searching for the cold inside of me that allowed access to my ghost powers. It had been really strange and scary when I had first felt that cold feeling after stumbling out of the Fenton Portal. I suppose that was why my powers had been so messed up those first few months. Or at least, that's what I'm guessing.

When I brushed against the cold I was able to use my powers, but they were really weak. The deeper I clutched that cold feeling inside me the stronger my powers were. Eventually I had figured out how to use that cold to access my ghost side at will. Something that had freaked me out, a lot, when I had first discovered it. Sam and Tuck thought I had been overreacting. Hah! As if. Let's see them get turned into a half-ghost and than not freak out.

Clutching the cold feeling inside me as tightly as possible I was expecting to see the bright blue rings around my waist and feel the cold quickly spread itself across my body. What I didn't expect to happen however, was to hear a weird, random and freaky voice inside my head instead of changing into my ghost-half.

_Uh-uh. No way are you flying out of here and blasting Plasmius just because you think the man did something to you when you have no proof whatsoever. That'd be the worst thing to do right now. I thought you were suppose to be the responsible one anyways! _

Blasting Plasmius. Now there was a pretty good idea I could use to my advantage...

_Don't even think about it Danny! Just because you think the man did something-_

Think? I was in the guy's house in some random room that looked slightly familiar, hm, probably the one I had slept in during the reunion...That guy had so done something! Why else would I wake up in his home with no memory of what happened?

_Maybe because he was trying to help you? Ever think of that?_

No way would Masters help me! He-he-he-

_Cares for you deeply and sees you as a son? Is always trying to help you out in his own way? Hm, your right. No way would he _ever_ help you out..._

Oh shut up! Wait...Argh! I'm arguing with a voice inside my _head_! "Okay Plasmius! Spit it out! What the heck did you do to me to make me lose my ghost powers!"

"Dear boy what on Earth are you talking about?" Play dumb will you Masters? I'll show you...

"You did something to mess with me and my ghost powers didn't you! You probably gave me some weird potion-tablet-pill thingy that messes with my mind and twists it to where I start to see things your way too! Why else would I keep hearing this stupid voice! AND WHY THE HECK CAN'T I GO GHOST?"

I felt myself panting heavily before looking at Vlad's expression. He looked shocked, concerned, worried and a bunch of other stuff I was too tired to even try and decipher right now. What the heck was his deal? This was just what he had wanted, right? Me with no powers and at his mercy, like hell I was gonna let that happen!

_Look. Just try and talk to the man without aiming to kill him. You may actually learn what happened to you and what's going on. Or you can try to bust your way out of here with no powers and no plan. Not to mention no clue of what is going on in the first place. Your choice._

Stupid voice. Just because it made more sense than me didn't mean I was gonna actually listen to it! As if I would be _that _insane to trust inside a voice in my head. Not even I was that stupid...

"Look Plasmius. Just tell me what the heck is going on. The last thing I remember is leaving school with my friends. Now you're telling me I've been out for three days and I have wounds I don't even remember getting?" Okay, so maybe the voice had a infinitesimally amount of sense. Blasting Vlad, as much satisfaction as I would get from that, wouldn't help me figure out what was going on. Talking calmly however looked like it may have better results...

"Okay. We'll start simple. Do you remember landing near the river?" River? What the heck was he talking about?

"What river Vlad? I haven't even been near water large enough to even _call _a river for the past few months. And trust me, I'm not in a hurry to get near one after what happened last time...Stupid Youngblood wanted to be Captain of a submarine this time...stupid kid..." Honestly. How annoying could that kid be? First a pirate, than a cowboy.

And I could still remember the time I had to deal with his Ninja phase...I still have no clue why he died his hair yellow and yelled _Believe it! a_fter every single sentence...Still muttering to myself I looked back up at Plasmius to see he looked a little uneasy. Well, that couldn't be very good.

"You mean you don't remember anything of what happened from the past two weeks? Could be a defense mechanism I suppose..." I noticed that he looked even more shocked than before. Of course I don't remember anything! How could I if he knocked me out! I ignored his weird mutterings before answering his question. Again.

"No Vlad! I keep telling you that I don't remember anything that happened! All I remember is what I keep telling you, walking home from school with Sa-" ...Wait...Did he just say two weeks? "Whoa whoa whoa, back up. Vlad, what did you just say?" The man gave me a strange look before repeating what he had said earlier.

"Landing near a river?" Idiot! Why would I be sounding so shocked over some stupid river that I had no clue or memory of!

"No Vlad. After that!"

"Lost memories being a defense mechanism?" That man...If he was aiming to try and annoy me into submission, well, he was well on his way to it being mission accomplished!

"No! In. The. Middle!" Honestly. Just how stupid could he get! What else could he have said that would make me freak out that badly!

"Remembering anything from the past two weeks?" I barely noticed he had said it hesitantly and with a worried look. As if he knew my reaction was going to be bad. Well, at least I know knew why he kept avoiding the question I had asked.

"T-Two weeks?" A slow nod from the fruitloop was all that was needed before I reorganized what was going on, and my thoughts.

I was inside Vlad's mansion. I was seriously wounded. I had also been missing two weeks. And I can't remember anything of what happened over that time period. Solution to the problem? Run away. Quickly.

"Daniel! Get back here!" As if ya fruitloop. I tried to get access to my powers again only to hear that same stupid little voice!

_You are not getting your powers back until you calm down long enough to talk to Vlad like a civilized person. Exchanging witty banter and trying to beat the snot out of each other doesn't count either! And you know that! Also, I am not stupid and I am not little!_

Great. The voice had a mind all it's own. How wonderful is that! As if this day could get any more weird. The only thing missing is the Box Ghost jumping out and yelling boo. And why do I feel as if he's already done that before now...?

"Daniel, you have to remember something of what happened! Anything!" Darn it! I'd never get away as long as Vlad had access to Plasmius and I was blocked from getting to Phantom! Wait...ugh, great, now my thoughts are turning confusing! Again!

Why did that sound so familiar...and why did I add again to the end of that thought?

"Daniel!" Right. Run now, think later.

"I keep telling you Vlad! I don't remember anything of what you're talking about! So leave. Me. Alone!" My breathes were coming in shorter gasps as I tried to find a way to elude Plasmius long enough to think of what the what the heck going on and what I had to do to get out of here! Ugh. There had to be something!

"Daniel! Running is pointless when you can't access you powers! Now please, calm down and try to remember! Can't you remember anything of what happened to your friends and family? All your loved ones?" What. Is. He. Talking about! They were all perfectly fine, happy and healthy.

Well, Mikey had come in with a pretty nasty cold that day, but it turned out to be nothing but some pollen allergies and he was fine by the end of the day. Fine enough to carry Dash and Kwan's things to the Nasty Burger anyways.

"I don't know what you're talking about Plasmius! I can't _remember_what you're talking about! So just go away! Leave! Me! Alone!" I panted even more while skidding around a corner, nearly losing my balance, as Plasmius rounded the same corner a few seconds later. That loser. He was flying slowly on purpose. He knew he could catch me easily when I was in human form.

Think Fenton think! There had to be some way to get away from him and get back home! Something I was forgetting! Even without my powers I was still trained to hunt ghosts! There had to be something I could do! Anything!

_Danny! Quit running away! You're running from the one person who can help you and you're running from the truth! You _have _to remember! So quit bottling up your damn emotions for once!_

"Shut up both of you! I DON'T _REMEMBER_! SO QUIT ASKING ME!" Rounding another corner I was hardly paying attention to my surroundings anymore. I just needed a way out! It didn't matter if it was a window and I broke a leg jumping! I'd crawl home if it came to it, the important thing was the need to get away from _him_!

Window. Not a bad idea actually. Running to the nearest window I quickly jerked it open, or tried to anyways. Dang paranoid fruitloop and all his locking systems! He's half-ghost, like any burglar would stand a chance against him even if they did somehow manage to break in!

"Daniel! Would you just-"

_-stop running away from the problem! You need to-_

"-face it! Running is not going to get you anywhere!"

"_So stop running away!"_

"SHUT UP THE _BOTH_OF YOU! I AM NOT RUNNING AWAY FROM A PROBLEM!" I continued to try and tear the window open some more while shouting back to both complainers, "I AM MEARLY ESCAPING FROM A DEADLY ENEMY!"

"Daniel...do you really expect me to believe an excuse as pathetic as that?"

_Really? _That _was the best you could come up with? _

Those two...they are so annoying! And one of them was a disembodied voice inside my head! Ugh! I can't handle this! I don't want to remember whatever it is they're trying to get me to remember! And why does my head feel like it's about to explode from pain?

_Fine...I give up. Just please, think all of your actions and choices through before you do anything _too_ rash Danny..._

What? Why did the voice sound so...sad? Like it was disappointed in my choice? And why did realizing that hurt so much. Vlad even looked disappointed at how I was running away from everything. Why did it hurt so much to have them disappointed in me. I wanted to be strong...no, I _needed_ to be strong like they were!

What the heck? What am I thinking? Those _strong _people were Plasmius and some random voice inside my head that didn't exist! This place is making me crazy! Gotta get out of here, gotta escape. Somehow. Cold feeling. Blue rings. That meant...

"Daniel! Get back here!"

"No way old man!" I yelled back while quickly changing my legs into a tail and flying as fast as I could to- To where? I had no clue how to get around this mansion. I had only been here a few times since I met the guy! Whatever, that window that was just behind me led to the outside, which meant to my left was...More outside! Freedom!

I felt my body speed up even more before I hit something. Hard. Yeah. I almost chuckled at remembering how when I first woke up thoughts of me remembering crashing into a brick wall at top speed drifted into my mind. Yeah, that was how this felt. Only worse. Especially since it was Vlad's stupid anti-human and ghost shield. I hate that thing!

There had to be a weak link somewhere! I knew that from messing with our own ghost shield at home enough times. I had to if I wanted to get inside the house when they were testing the stupid thing. Some weak point, some glitch in the program. Anything! Nope, no weak spots there. Or there. Or there. I let out another yelp as I hit the shield. Again.

"Ugh...Okay Fenton. Calm down. Don't freak out." Too late. I was starting to hyper-ventilate. Which wasn't good when I had ghost powers that were usually connected to my emotions, meaning when my emotions get too strong, they go haywire. I learned that all to well after having crossed paths with that stupid overgrown cloud Vortex. And right now, my strongest emotions were turning out to be sheer and utter panic.

Something told me that panic wasn't too good a feeling to have when trying to escape a force field that kept both sides of you out. Okay Fenton. Calm down. It's gonna be alright.

"Daniel! Would you stop fooling around and listen to me for one _blasted_ minute?" Okay. _Now_ you can officially freak out. I was trapped inside a mansion and it's grounds that Vlad knew by heart and I didn't have a chance of navigating. The shield was up, which meant I couldn't get out, and I had no way to turn it off.

This was bad. Really, _really_ bad.

"Daniel!" What was he shouting for now! I was still trying to break the shield, did he really expect me to stop trying to find a way to escape? Wait, no, panic had taken control again. I was now flying through the halls at top speed. Again. Okay Fenton. Deep, _calming_ breathes. Like Jazz taught you to do when stressed.

First things first, have to find a way to where I can use my ghost powers freely yet Vlad won't be able track me down with his stupid ghost sense. I still didn't know how he could track halfas and I couldn't. That just wasn't very fair-

"_-could you go to my lab, second door on the right upstairs-" _That's it! Vlad's lab! There had to be something I could use in there to escape! Flying around the halls some more I managed to find my way to the main staircase, hm, I was already on the second floor. That just made thing easier for me! As soon as I got my bearings I heard Plasmius nearby screaming something about running away and locking up my emotions so I sped up my flying to go even faster.

Kinda weird how I remembered where Vlad's lab was though. He had first told me that two years ago at that stupid and pointless college reunion. And I was horrible at remembering things, something my friends and sister seemed to point out and comment on whenever they got the chance. Which was often. It was almost like something inside me had brought forth that specific memory when I had needed it most...

Whoa. Okay. Too many sci-fy marathons at Tucker's place. Would have to cut back on those, if I ever got out of here alive. When Fenton, not if.

"Ack! Great, he even puts a shield on the freaking lab? How paranoid is he?" Still muttering to myself I quickly flew up one more story and tried phasing into the lab from the top. For some strange reason, my subconscious remembered that I was able to get into his lab from a small hole in his shield that was weak from the ceiling.

Ha! Bet he didn't even know it was there. Along with paranoid he's apparently cocky too! Wow, those two traits don't usually go with each other. Ugh! Focus Fenton! You are trapped in you arch-enemy's house and you need to find something to hide from his way-too-strong ghost-sense! Otherwise you're toast. I don't even like toast!

Hm? This looked promising. I remembered seeing that necklace a few months back. Skulker had used it to sneak up on me without my ghost sense going off. Of course the _great hunter_had immediately started gloating and bragging about his new gift from Plasmius. I could only guess that Plasmius would have been really angry if he knew Skulker had told me about it. Would probably skin the hunter himself if he ever found out about it.

Well, one ghost's loss is another ghost's gain I suppose. I grabbed the necklace before smirking victoriously. Than I heard the all-too-loud thud, in my opinion, of heavy black boots hitting the sleek linoleum floors. Well, this was pretty bad.

"Daniel...are you done running?" Really, _really_ bad. Vlad sounded nice, which meant he was _really_ mad. Oh this is so not good. I am so dead. I am so so _so_ going to lose the other half of my life! He's going to trap me inside a freaking thermos for a few weeks than question and torture me until he get what he wants! I am so-

"Hey there V-man. Just browsing through your little trinkets here, most of 'em could probably use some more work though." Please, please, _please_ tell me that there was another ghost in here talking to Vlad and sounding cocky and had just happened to know the old nickname my Dad had called the old man in college. Please?

"Than again, I bet they won't work even if you do fix them up. They'll never work just like you'll never be able to catch me." I almost gasped in shock at how cheery and provoking my voice sounded right than. I _would_have gasped if I had any sort of control over what the heck I had been saying! What the heck was wrong with me! I am so going to be completely and utterly dead! He is so gonna murder me and than hide the body in the Ghost Zone! Ack!

"Why you little-" Okay, annoyed tick above the eye and him cutting his sentences short. He is _so_ angry right now. Why must I fight back against him now? Can't I just run away like I had been doing so far. It had seemed to be going pretty well before I somehow grew a backbone without me realizing it. Darn it Phantom!

"I bet your shield couldn't even trap me in here. After all, I did manage to get in, it'd be easy as anything to get out again," Oh gods, I am so going to die. He is going to kill me. "Ain't that right V-man?" Yep. So, so dead. Tucker, when I am destroyed into oblivion, you get all access to any and all electronics I own.

Sam, you get all the goth-like things I am in possession of, and all the creepy ghost artifacts hidden in my room. Jazz, you get all the journals you forced me to write in. You're also in charge of telling Mom and Dad what happened to me. If you can, find out why I was insane enough to choose to fight back against an angry Vlad.

"Do you really want to wager that boy. Don't forget, I was the one who helped Maddie and Jack _invent_ the ghost shield in the first place!" Really? Hm, I wonder just how much he contributed to the research and plans. Yeah Mom was pretty okay with the numbers and building, and Dad was good with with outrageous designs and...well, names?

But Vlad...he was good at any and everything, weapon or technology, concerning ghosts. I had seen some of the things that he had created to use on the ghosts. He had even created Val's first ghost-hunting suit! Trust me, I knew just how high-tech and painful that thing was when used against ghosts. And she hadn't even known how to fight ghosts at first! Well, that probably explained how he got Technus to work for him every now and than.

"Aw come on Vladdie! Yeah, you're pretty good at ghost tech and stuff, but I bet my Dad could build better weapons than you any day! Oh wait...didn't you steal most of his ideas in the first place?" Me, please shut up. I don't want to die. Not yet. I'm still young! There are things I still wanna do before crossing over! Like...like...well, I can't really think of anything to do right now, but I still don't want to die! All because I ticked off Plasmius even more!

"Oh? For starters, all the things Jack has built so far were ideas we had come up with _together_before we even got the proto-portal working! Also Daniel, does Jack have a twenty-code locking system that even the inventors find hard to break?" Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, NO! I am _so_toast. "Initiate twenty-code locking system. Program 13-PLS." I am so going to die.

"Bring it on V-man! Hit me with your best shot!" Am I...humming? I hate that song in the first place! So why in Clockwork's name am I humming it? I stole a glance at Vlad to see that the tick above his eye had only gotten worse. A lot worse.

"Program 13-PLS activating. Ninety-two percent." I am so dead. Wait, why am I flying? Where am I flying to? Did I just stick my tongue out at Vlad and say nyah-nyah? Judging by that expression that says _you have hell to pay_ yes. Yes I did. Oh dear gods what is going on with me today? Why am I giving Vlad even more reason to turn me into toast?

"Twenty-code lock completed." Okay. I just trapped Vlad in his own lab, and with all that blasting he's doing right now, I'm pretty sure he's majorly ticked off. Why did I have to go and provoke him! And why can't I control where the heck I'm going?

_Calm down Danny. Vlad's gonna be locked up for a little while if that blasting he's doing is any indication. Gives you enough time to think about what's going on. I managed to help you this time but that's all I can do for you right now._

What in the world was going on with me today? I groaned as I felt myself change back into Fenton before collapsing against a stack of boxes. I felt so tired after putting up with all that. And it hadn't even been an hour since I had first woken up...Where the heck was I even?

_You're in the attic. Listen closely. We're both really weak. I won't be able to help you for a while so please try to get along with Vlad- _

Me? You're the one who managed to get him even angrier than he was before! _I_ wasn't the one who just just stuck his tongue out and make him want to end me once and for all!

_Hello? It's you we're talking about. He'll forgive you for sure, he's besotted with you like a doting father and his favorite son. And technically, it _was_ you who did that._

Okay, one, that was you! You just hijacked my body so now he _thinks _it was me. And two, he's not my father...he never will be...

_Never say never Danny. Just...promise me you'll at least _consider_ listening to what Vlad has to say. Please?_

No way in hell. Why should I trust him! He's such a-

_Danny! Has he really done anything, anything at all, to get you to mistrust him so far. And I don't mean in the past, I mean since you woke up! He's done nothing but try to sit you down and explain what's wrong with you!_

I sighed in frustration, I think the voice did too. What worried me is that he sounded really weak...Wait...he? This day could get no weirder...that was for sure.

_Just, promise me._

"Fine. I'll _consider_ listening to what Vlad has to say..." I heard an almost non-existent and exasperated thank you before I shook my head. It was official. I was slowly going more insane by the second. My body had been taken over by a voice and than I had a conversation with that same voice. Would my life ever be normal again?

_You know...you _can_ trust me and Vlad..._

Nothing but silence was my answer to that. What the heck was going on with me. Not only was I having conversations with a voice in my head, but it was saying I could trust said non-existent voice, and my arch-rival who had been nothing but pure evil since I met the guy!

But...had he really be evil? Sure he was a bit twisted...but, all he had wanted was someone to love and love him back. Was that really considered being evil? I mean, if he was a villain or something he would at least be considering some world domination plans or something stupid like that...

"_Well, it worked for you didn't it? You're still normal. Granted a little twisted but...normal." _

What...what was that? A glimpse of what felt like a memory...a flashback? "My life is getting more and more messed up by the second. It has been ever since I stepped into that stupid portal. Maybe Jazz was right about that psychiatrist..."

"_Maybe Jazz is right, maybe I do need a psychiatrist..." I moaned to myself before grabbing another one of the cookies and biting into it, smiling as I felt the taste of sweet chocolate-chips._

"Okay...I'm officially freaked out. What in the world is going on...are these flashbacks? And why was I eating a cookie?" Maybe this was what that voice and Vlad was trying to get me to remember. Well, I don't see what they were so torn up about. So far, all that had happened to me was that I had called Vlad twisted and normal and admitted to needing mental help. And eating a cookie. Hardly something to freak out over.

"No...there's more to it than that...and how did I know that one sentence was directed towards Vlad?" Man, instead of answers these flashback things were just giving me even more questions than before. Questions that I found a very large part me didn't want to answer. Ever. "So confusing..."

Well, it's not like I could fix any of that now. Right now I needed to concentrate on getting out of this mansion. And the best way to do that would be to-

"Oh Daniel..." I just barely noticed, or even heard, myself take a reflexive gasp out of shock. Crap. I am so dead. He is so going to kill me. Today will be the day I die.

"Heh, hey there Vlad...whatcha doin'?" I let out a nervous little giggle before slowly beginning to inch myself into a position where I could run away all the more easily. The second I moved to try I felt the collar of my shirt being grabbed. Wait, that wasn't a shirt, it was a red-like color pajama top...What the heck? What happened to my clothes?

"Daniel...do you have any idea just how much trouble you have put me through recently?" I had a feeling he wasn't just talking about chasing me around the mansion all morning. How I knew that I had no freaking clue.

"Um...probably a lot. Yeah...I'm gonna say a lot..."

"Correct." Yep. I was so going to end up becoming full ghost today. Wonder how he's gonna kill me. Probably gonna- What? I felt my hand slowly twitch until a small ecto-beam shot out and hit the bottom of a stack of boxes, causing the whole pile to start to wobble before beginning to fall forward on an unsuspecting Vlad. I couldn't help it. I laughed. A lot.

"T-Thanks Phantom," I gasped through my laughter before making a break towards the attic ladder. Wait, why had I thanked Phantom? That didn't even make any sense! But that whole feeling of being trapped by an angry adult only for a well-placed ecto-beam to get us out felt so familiar...Man, my life was getting so messed up again.

"And here I thought Vlad was the fruitloop," I muttered to myself while letting out another chuckle and rounding a corner. I quickly turned ghost before slipping the small device I had swiped from the lab around my neck. That should deter Plasmius from tracking me for a little while at least. Now to find a way out of this mansion.

Man, Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad! And Jazz, Tuck and Sam are probably freaking out right now and trying to think of a way to bust me out of here. I wonder if they had already tried to get me out before now. I also wondered why I had this really weird feeling that no one was going to come and get me. That Vlad was the only one I could turn to now.

"Ow! Man! How many times does that have to happen?" I shouted to than air while glaring at the glowing green shield above me. I wonder what humans thought of when the ghost shield randomly appeared out of thin air around here. I mean, it was _huge _if it could cover the whole mansion and grounds...Not like it really mattered I suppose. Why was I thinking these things anyways?

Man...I am so tired. Maybe that's why my thoughts are starting to get so wacky right now...not to mention it would explain why the pain in my chest keeps hurting. Why am I thinking of the Guys-in-White when I feel the pain in my arm and chest...and exploding spikes...

"Ugh...when did everything stop making sense?" I groaned while thinking of a response along the lines of _a day I became half-ghost. _It was around that time I spotted a small river that wound it's way into the forest near the edge of the grounds. Hm, I wonder if that's the river Vlad had been talking about earlier when I had first woken up...It does look eerily familiar. Don't know why though-

"_Skulker, Fright Knight, Vultures, you no longer need to look for the boy." "Daniel? Little badger, can you hear me?"_

"_V-Vlad...?"_

"_Yes Daniel, it's me, I need you to tell me what happened to you."_

"_Not sure. Flew. Kept flying, all a blur..." "Remember...it being dark...and cold. Kept flying...trying to escape...no use...Vlad...They're all gone. Aren't they?"_

What...what was that? What had that _been. _That was Vlad and me...at the river-bend? Who had I been trying to escape from? Is that why I couldn't remember anything? I had been attacked? No...that didn't sound quite right. Who's all gone? Why am I asking Vlad?

"What is going on..." I muttered softly while slowly placing my hands against the shield before leaning my forehead against it. I felt myself slowly start to descend towards the ground out of frustration. None of this made sense any more. These flashbacks, if that's what they even were, were just raising more and more questions. Well, I had figured out one thing.

Fate really hated me.

"_S'not fair. Why does fate hate us so much...?" _I found myself mouthing the same words that ran through my head. Ugh. Nothing ever made sense. So I doubt it would start to now. Especially with a flashback of me asking why fate hated us.

"Crap," I muttered. I didn't even need to turn around to know who was floating behind me. There had been no noise, but I could just _feel_ the demonic aura radiating from him. He was _so_ angry right now. I didn't even notice myself start to pale. And trust me, a ghost paling is a pretty weird sight, considering we're so pale to begin with.

I suppose that his anger was understandable. I hadn't even seen Vlad this mad in a _long_ time. Last time he had been near this level of mad was when some ghost gang ambushed me in public at one of the _mayor's _stupid speeches.

Of course being in public meant I couldn't go ghost, especially with Vlad and my parents watching. And half the town. So I was pretty much running around trying to avoid getting hit and captured by the ghosts. Mom and Dad had been blasted into the crowd and I couldn't even see Vlad. My running didn't last for long however since I was soon hit in the back with five blasts simultaneously, one from each of them. As a human. Last thing I remember was Plasmius standing in front of me facing the gang.

After I woke up Sam and Tuck filled me in on how they weren't even sure if the ghosts _survived _after facing Plasmius. Needless to say that had surprised me. A lot. I had dismissed it than has Vlad wanting to make sure no harm came to his precious apprentice, unless he caused it. Later on...not so sure anymore.

Oh great, now even my thoughts are rambling. I've been spending way too much time around Clockwork. Right now, the only thing I should be thinking about, is how to escape a ticked of Vlad Plasmius. One who looked like he hadn't slept in weeks and had been worried to the other half of his death that whole time.

Okay, only one solution. Run. Fast. Again.

"Hey there V-man," A nervous giggle bubbled up before my body started darting away. Quickly. Him chasing me went without saying. Man, he was so gonna kill me when he finally caught me. I don't care what that voice had said!

Right. Up. Left. Dodge. Intangible. Dang, there goes the the stupid necklace thing. Oh well, eek, dodge! Invisible. Run. Fly faster. Left. Up. Down! Down! Right. Right. Down. Swerve. Up. Way up. Speed dive. Invisible. Right.

Man...Who knew dodging Plasmius could be so exhausting! Both mentally and physically. I was about to fall out of the air, if he didn't knock me out of it first. I felt the collar of my suit being grabbed before I gulped again. Not good.

I quickly turned intangible to escape his grip out of instinct. Only this time I felt myself getting shocked with what felt like a couple thousand volts. What the heck was that? It felt like that one time Vlad had used that stupidly named device to short my powers out while in the Rockies...Oh crap.

I stifled a scream as best I could, all that manged to do was make me let out a strangled gasp before I hit cold water. Icy, cold water. Well, at least it was better than hitting rock-hard ground. One problem though. I was too tired to even move my fingers, let alone swim to the surface. Great. Maybe hitting the ground wouldn't have been too bad. I mean, according to Sam grass was supposed to be soft and springy, right?

This day couldn't get any worse. I was gonna drown to death while wearing red-boarding-on-pink pajamas in my arch-rival's pool in Wisconsin. Not the way I had imagined the other half of my death happening. Not at all. Ever. Ugh, there's that sleepy feeling again...wonder what happens if you fall asleep underwater. Has anyone ever really tried? I felt myself drifting off even more before a _loud_ voice teared through my head.

_DANIEL! DON'T YOU **DARE** FALL ASLEEP! NO WAY ARE YOU QUITTING ON ME NOW! NOT AFTER ALL THIS TIME! DANNY! DANNY! **DANNY!**_

"Daniel! _DANIEL?" _Ugh...what the heck. Why does my head hurt so freaking much? "You okay there little badger?" Great, he was laughing. It was a really weird laugh though. It sounded like the laugh I had made after Jazz turned out to be perfectly okay after almost being crushed by the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle. Relieved.

"Ugh...my head hurts..." I whined, not caring if I sounded like a kid or not. The way my day was going, I could care less if Vlad thought I acted like a six-year-old.

"Sorry about that little badger...It's probably just the shock from the Plasmius Maximus, it was the only way I could catch you without knocking you unconscious. Your headache might be from your near-death drowning experience though...Daniel?"

"Seriously?" At his confused look I decided to elaborate more, "Out of every name you could have chosen for that stupid little thing, you chose the _Plasmius Maximus_? Lame Vlad...just...lame...I mean, the Fenton Anti-Creep stick sounds cooler than that! And _that's_ saying something..."

"Well, glad to see you're feeling better..." I almost laughed at the sarcastic tone he had used. I could also hear the touch of relief in his voice. It was an easy thing to spot when half your conversations were filled with relief that you had managed to stop the latest ghost attack on your town or friends.

"Ugh...why does fate hate us so much..."

"_I really don't know Daniel. Maybe they just needed a laugh and they decided we were pathetic enough to give them that."_

"And why the heck does that sound so familiar..." I muttered to myself even more, hardly noticing how my concentration seemed to become less and less. Or how Vlad's expression now looked shocked at what I had said about Fate hating us. Maybe just a small nap wouldn't hurt anything. Hey, why was Vlad as soaked as I was?

I yelped when what felt like less than a second later as an icy cold feeling started spreading from the top of my head and down. "What the heck man?"

"Well, glad to see you're awake now." I had to grit my teeth from yelling at the amused voice of a conceited Masters. Honestly, he could be so dang annoying! Not only that, he was- Wait...why am I dripping wet? And in a straight-jacket...that's glowing...

"It was the only way to make sure you wouldn't escape again." I looked up to see Vlad smiling, not an evil smirk, but an actual smile. Okay, well, a little smirking. Wait...how did he know I was wondering about the straight-jacket?

"Crap. I wasn't voicing my thoughts again out loud, was I?" I felt my cheeks heat up so it was safe to assume I was blushing. I was wrong about before. The day just got worse and worse. Well, after all that has happened so far, I doubt anything else could ruin this day further. I heard Vlad's laugh before I turned around to where I was looking up at him.

"No. The expression on your face however made it clear as to what you were thinking." I sighed in relief before realizing something. Something huge. Vlad Masters, evil ghost-hybrid who wanted to kill my dad, steal my mom, and have me become his evil apprentice son, was laughing.

And I don't mean a evil sneer, annoying chuckle or unmanly giggle. He was just purely laughing in amusement...Ya know, when he laughed like that, it was easy to forget he was an evil half-ghost hellbent on revenge. Suppose it was why I felt myself smiling slightly in return. Well, at least he didn't want to kill me anymore. I hope.

"Hey Vlad...um...sorry." At the man's surprised look I started rambling. Just a tad bit, "You know, for yelling and shouting after you had taken care of me. For running away. For trapping you in your lab. Although to be completely fair it wasn't really me who trapped you in the lab but a little voice inside my head who decided to take over my body just to try and get me enough time to figure out what the heck was going on!

"Also, sorry about the whole boxes falling on top of you thing, to be fair, that was Phantom too though! And I have no freaking idea or clue what the heck I mean when I say that cause it probably confuses you just as much as it confused me and I'm probably not making any sense what so ever so I just wanted to say sorry for all the trouble I've caused! Also...why are you dripping wet and _why_ are you laughing again..."

"Dear boy you really are a sweet child," I blinked in shock at the amusement and care that simply layered his voice before I felt the gentle ruffle of my hair and watched him sit down on the floor before taking his suit jacket off. Which was very wet, "Don't worry, you have nothing to be sorry for. If I was in your position I would have reacted very much the same."

"Yeah, the difference being you would have blasted the person till you got answers instead of trying to escape like I was doing." I muttered back, a small smile tugging at my lips. Him patting my head wasn't really that bad. As for him sitting on the floor, billionaire Vlad Masters who hated filth, _that_ was a shocker. Another shocker was that we were having a civil conversation, without trying to kill each other. Well, I was in a straight-jacket...but still...

"Hm, true." Another little chuckle before he leaned back against the couch behind him. Well, suppose that meant we were in a living room of some kind. Huh, he looks a lot more normal when his hair is messy like that. Too bad Tuck wasn't here to take a picture with his PDA. Now _that_ would have been a great keepsake of the day.

"I really am sorry for all the trouble though..." I muttered back, shocked to find out how scared I was of him being mad at me. Now _that_ was a little weird. I usually had fun making him mad. For some reason though, I really wanted him to accept me.

What the heck was wrong with me today? I looked back at Vlad once I heard another chuckle. This is probably the longest I've heard him go without doing or saying something evil.

"No harm done my boy. Just a few fallen boxes and wet clothes." Wow. That was...decent of him. Who the heck was this and what had he done with the usual crazy fruitloop. Huh...we were still wet though.

"You know, we should probably dry off before we get a fever or something, even though I feel as if I've already had one..." I muttered while twisting my head up and down, trying to get the dripping water off of it. I sneezed before going back to shaking the water off my hair. I hate getting water off my head, I always had issues with getting my hair to turn intangible yet keeping the water tangible long enough to get it off...

_Except my hair of course, that part I still had to dry off with a towel. Yup, being a ghost could be fun sometimes. Wonder if Vlad knew how to phase water out of hair..._

Ugh. Just what I need. Another flashback. And here I thought things were starting to turn normal for a little while. Hey, why didn't I feel as wet anymore?

"That should just about do it." I looked up to hear Vlad muttering to himself and to see his hand was glowing red. I also saw that he was using his own heat powers to dry us off. He could do that?

"You can dry others off using heat powers? I didn't know you could do that! I always turned intangible to get the water off. Of course I could never get the water out of my hair that way, I always had issues with keeping the water and hair separated. And I could never use fire or heat powers. They were always ice. How did you do that anyways? How long have you been able to do that? Can you-"

"Daniel, I really do think you need to breath between sentences when you talk," I cut myself off upon hearing Vlad's comment and laughter. That little...

"Hey! I just got shocked with a couple thousand volts, feel like I got blasted by the Guys-in-White, multiple times, and it feels like I have a fever for some reason! I also got dropped into a pool, am having weird memory flash thingies and have no clue what I'm rambling on about anymore!" I tried to take deep breaths between my lame explanation. Well, one thing was for sure.

If I wasn't blushing before I certainly was now. Stupid fruitloop and his laughter. "Yeah yeah Vlad...Laugh it up fruitloop. Laugh it up..." If I was hoping to get him to be quiet with _that_ lame line, than I was wrong. Very wrong. The only difference is that now if he _was_trying to stifle his laughter he wasn't doing that good a job at it. I mean...who laughs that much? Does he not see why I call him a fruitloop?

Well, yeah it was something that randomly popped into my head during one of our first arguments, and even _I_ thought it was pretty lame at first. But the reaction it got out of him was just too good to stop using it! I had to keep it up, it was one of the few things that annoyed him! Well, that and me telling him to get a cat...

"Meow!" Speaking of which. I had to stifle a few giggles as Vlad's white cat, _Maddie_, brushed up against me before sitting on my lap in content. I still can't believe he had gotten a cat. It was just too funny! I watched the cat meow again before rubbing against my side and clinging to my shoulder with her claws. Apparently Vlad found this funny as well because he went back to trying to stifle his laughter. Again.

I drew in a deep breath, ready to yell at him to let it go. I mean, how many times can one man laugh in that short a time! It was so-

_Fruitloop...Vlad...Why do I keep thinking about him?_

_Because we have a bond...Both of us are the only halfas in the world that exist, only Vlad has it worse. He's lived with bitterness, and now I've seen what it's done to him, to a ghost...What it did to me-_

"_Ugh...Vlad, I've realized something."_

"_And what's that little badger?"_

"_Being half-ghost really sucks."_

"_If you want to hurt the boy, you have to go through me you weakling ghost riff-raft."_

"_And it _was_ cool, at first. I fought ghosts and was able to help protect my friends and help protect my_ _family."_ _"It was kinda hard...to hide my powers from everyone. Especially since my intangibility was still settling in."_

"_Because Daniel, I did the same thing you're doing when I was hit by that stupid proto-portal..." "Oh yes. Being bitterly alone, seeking revenge on my old college buddy and roommate. Trying to steal the woman he married who, in my crazed mind, should have been mine. Trying to convince you to turn on your father and join me as my apprentice and son. Yes Daniel. I'm _perfectly_ normal."_

_You know...you _can_ trust me and Vlad..._

What...what was that? More flashbacks...I shook my head while trying to focus back on the here and now, and how I couldn't hear Vlad's laughter anymore. Something was wrong...what were these flashbacks. Well, I recognized a few of them. One was were Vlad had protected me from that ghost gang attack. The last had been that voice telling me I could trust in him and Vlad...

What is wrong with me...Nothing makes sense in my world anymore. It feels like it did when I first went through that stupid Fenton Portal. Everything turned upside-down, my whole world thrown into disarray. Heh, disarray, Sam and Jazz would be proud. Me using vocabulary words like that...

"Daniel? You there little badger?"

"Yes. Now can you stop snapping your fingers? It's annoying. A lot." I blinked my eyes to adjust to the rapid movement of the snapping fingers before Vlad muttered something too low for me to hear before putting his hand down. Wow, he must have spoken _really_ low if I hadn't be able to hear it. I mean, my ghost-half increased my hearing by a _lot_.

"Daniel...are you alright?" I looked over at Vlad as he asked that, his weird cat having moved to rest on my shoulders by than and was playing with the ends of my hair. Was I alright? I was about to say I was just fine, like I always did when someone asked me. It had become an automatic answer to say I was fine and nothing was wrong.

"You know...every time someone has ever asked me that question, I always say I'm fine...It's become an automatic answer. Ever since that stupid trip through the portal nothing has ever been _fine._ I mean...what are you supposed to say to that question when you have ghost powers that you can't tell anyone about. And when you have to protect your town on a daily basis." I didn't even notice I was rambling to Vlad about all my worries and problems. I mean...it was _Vlad_! He should be the last one I could confine in.

Yet for some reason...it felt like there was no one else to voice my worries too anymore... "I had to go to school everyday, try my hardest to stay ahead in my studies while fighting all the ghosts that invaded the town. I mean...it felt like it was my _responsibility _to or something. To stop all the ghosts that were coming through the portal that _I_ had activated. Besides...there was no one else there to stop them.

"Yeah there were my parents. But they couldn't even catch a ghost if one was living under their own roof," I didn't try very hard to hide the giggle that came out, "As was proven by me...well...there were a lot of close calls. Every day I woke up I felt like it was my last day of freedom. Like I would be locked away after that day, experimented on, dissected, tortured...I was so scared Vlad...I felt like nothing was ever going to be normal again.

"Sure I was able to hang out with Tucker and Sam as much as I wanted too, they even helped me with the ghost-hunting, but...they never really got it. Sure they sympathized and tried to help me out but...no one can understand the pain of being half-human and half-ghost..." I tried to stop. I really did try to stop voicing all my worries and troubles. But it felt...nice.

To finally get it all off my chest. To confide in the one person who might actually understand what it was like to live that life. To have to put up with all the annoyances and troubles and fear of being half of something that most of the world didn't believe in.

"You know...even growing up around my parents I never really believed in ghosts. I mean, I never thought there was a possibility of them _existing_. To me and Jazz, it was just another odd things my parents believed in that we didn't. But after that portal was finished...after that first time they turned it on and it had failed, I found myself sad...As if I was on the same page as my parents for once, wanting to find out what was on the other side." I took a deep breath at this point. Debating whether or not I should continue on what to say next. I felt like if I didn't tell someone now, I would just go crazy keeping it all bottled up.

I glanced up at Vlad's face for a split-second before looking back down at my lap. I saw way too many emotions to even try to count in his face...but...something there was urging me to continue. Urging me to keep telling the story that I had always wanted to tell someone. Someone who would actually understand what I was talking about and where I was coming from. I took one more deep breath before starting up again. Well, I might as well finish what I had started...

"Later that day Tucker and Sam came over. They were late coming to see the grand unveiling of the portal so by the time they got there it was just me and the two of them down in the basement. I explained to them how it had failed, and than Sam wanted to take a picture," I laughed lightly as seeing the confusion cross Vlad's face, "Her new hobby had been photography. So she wanted a picture of me next to the Ghost Portal while holding one of the hazmat suits," I saw Vlad's smile at my sour expression at the mention of the demonic jumpsuits my parents made me and Jazz wear when dealing with the portal or anything ghostly.

"I ended up putting the suit on after Sam tried to convince me to go in. To be honest, I hadn't really needed convincing. Even without Sam goading me on I still would have gone in...It just felt like the portal was...calling me. As if there was someone on the other side waiting to see me after a long separation..." Not even the others knew what I had felt before going through the portal. They had always thought it was just some stupid thing I did for no reason. There was a reason. I had felt a longing...A huge longing for someone on the other side...Waiting for me.

"That longing drove me to go into the portal. Once in there, I felt the longing grow even stronger until I was standing in the middle. Sam and Tucker were trying to call me back out, saying it wasn't safe. None of my parent's inventions were really safe to start with..." I paused while not even bothering to glance at Vlad. I was too lost inside my memories. Inside, watching the events of what happened that day. It was as if I was experiencing what was about to happen all over.

"I was walking slowly...searching for...something or someone..." that cool metal against my hand felt icy cold, even through the protective hazmat suit. "My hand was brushing along a side of the portal before it ran over something that felt like a bump in the metal..." I finally met Vlad's gaze before finishing telling what I had done next.

"It wasn't. It was a button," I saw Vlad's eyes widen even more than before. The shock was apparent on his face at what I had said.

"_I pressed a stupid button. . ."_

"It was the stupid on button my parents had placed on the inside by mistake. My hand slipped against it at the same moment I had lost my balance. I had to steady myself against the side of the portal...It happened before I could even think about what was going on..." I closed my eyes, remembering the event that happened as if it was mere seconds ago. Had it really been almost two years since then?

"I heard a deep click within the machine. My parents, being the people they are...were...had left the portal plugged in..." I chuckled at how absent-minded the two could be at times. Had been...? "Sam and Tuck were shouting at me to run out of the portal as it started up. I couldn't move though, I just heard the rings around the portal charging up. Green energy pouring through them...My hand was still on the stupid button as a shock from the button traveled up through me into my nervous system...

"It hurt...so much..." I felt my eyes close tighter at remembering what happened next. All those volts of electricity traveling through my body...I felt Maddie make a small noise before rubbing against me some more. "It felt like I had been struck by consecutive lightning bolts, one after the other..." It had hurt so much, it felt like I had been dying. "Looking back I suppose it felt like I was dying because that was what was happening...Half of me was...dying..."

It felt as if my soul was being torn from my body, "The stupid tale of your life flashing past your eyes is stupid and untrue..." Instead of everything growing hazy, it grew sharper. More clear. "Instead of seeing my past I saw the dark void of what I now know was the Ghost Zone. And a voice..." A voice whispering to me gently, reassuring me...

"Everything will be alright...Just keep smiling and stick close to your friends and you'll never truly die." That was why I protected the town. "Why I fought away the ghosts that threatened to hurt them." Cause I was afraid to die. I was afraid to cross over into the unknown. "Even with me being half-ghost, half-dead...I still have no idea what it's like to die...Is it painful? Easy? Welcome?" It's scary...Dying is truly frightening.

"I was so scared when I came out of the portal...At that moment when I sat collapsed inside the portal, clutching my chest and trying to take deep breaths when I knew that it wouldn't matter. That it didn't help...I felt so scared. At that one moment...my whole world had been flipped. Just like my appearance. Black hair changed to white. Blue eyes changed to green. White and black jumpsuit changed to a black and white one. Everything inverted colors, as if this was now a universe that was completely different to my own..."

It felt like I would never be able to escape from this world anymore. "Like I was trapped and waiting to be rescued by someone." No one understood what it was like, they never were able to. Never would be able to. In constant fear of being found out. "Of being trapped and turned into some horrible experiment. It was like being trapped in a constant nightmare, one that would never end." One that turned even darker after that trip through time...

I opened my eyes and looked up to Vlad, to see him look so sad and shocked. Like he was so sorry I had gone through all that I had. Looking up at him, in that one second, I felt like I understood. Like I was never gonna be alone anymore. That someone would now always be there to protect me...

"_Oh Daniel. What's happened to you..."_

"Vlad...I need you to tell me. What happened?" I looked up to see one thing clear on Vlad's face. Hesitation. That one thing threw everything into prospective to me. Something had happened. And I couldn't remember what it had been.

"What...do you want to know?" He was stalling. He was trying to distract me. He was buying time so he could decide what to tell me and what not to tell me. I should know. I had done that to my friends and family every time I could.

"Everything Vlad. Tell me everything I'm forgetting." I heard the man sigh and I looked at him closely. He looked...well, for lack of a better word, _beat_. He really looked his age right than. I'm not trying to praise him or anything, but for being forty-something, he looked as if he was in his twenties.

Something that I had guessed was due to a side-effect from being blasted from concentrated ecto-energy. It would explain why I didn't age as quickly as everyone else around me. Something many tormented me about...stupid Dash...

I saw him open his mouth, as if ready to say something before closing it again. Yeah, he looked really beat. As if he had been through too much and in too little a time. I should know, the same thing happened to me after facing Dan. What had happened to have such a heavy effect on both him and me. To make him seem so old and weak, to make me forget and suppress what I did remember.

"Daniel...what do you know about coping and defense mechanisms?" What? What kinda question was that? I shifted my weight a little, that darn straight-jacket really starting to annoy me right about then. I heard Maddie purr in my ears before thinking back to what Jazz had said about the two.

"Well...Jazz was explaining it to me a while ago, trying to get me to help her study for an upcoming Psychology test. She was talking about how the two are habits, or something like it, that people do to help them cope with things." I racked my brain trying to think back on what she had said. "She said...that the most common defense for people was usually memory suppressant.

"She was telling me about how when the mind undergoes a heavy amount of trauma within a short time span, the mind puts up barriers. Surrounding the memories that threaten to do damage to the psyche. She said it was similar to how when we are kids growing up. Um..." What the heck had she said about that. I saw Vlad's smirk as I tried to think back to what she had said. Evil fruitloop.

"She was saying...that...Ah! She said that when we're kids and we start growing up, our older memories get pushed aside. Memories from when we were small children get pushed back further as they make room for the new ones. She said that no memory is ever forgotten, just buried. She said it was similar to how a memory suppressing coping mechanism works...

"The host mind works to preserve the mind so it suppresses the memories that are harmful to it...Is that what happened to me...?" I watched Vlad sigh and become solemn again.

"Yes Daniel. I'm thinking that may be what happened to your memories. That they were suppressed to preserve your mental state..." W-What did that mean? Did that mean the memories I had suppressed were traumatic?

_I didn't even hear myself scream out out of anger and fear, or feel myself fly away at speeds I had only ever dreamed of reaching. There were gone._

"Daniel?" I jerked my head up as soon as I heard his voice. I didn't notice I was shivering until Maddie made another small noise and rubbed her head against my hair. What was that...who was gone? Who were _they_? What was I forgetting? And more important...did I want to remember?

"Vlad," I felt my voice rasp as though I had just screamed like I had in that brief flash of memory, "What. Happened." I saw Vlad look almost..._defeated_...No. That can't be right. Vlad never looks like that. He is never defeated. He always wins, always has a back-up plan. He never loses. Even when he does he ends up getting what he wants. He never looks like that...so why now...

"Daniel...I want you to think back very hard. What is the last memory you remember_ clearly_. Not including the flashbacks." I feel like screaming in frustration. I had answered that stupid question all morning! Had it really only been one morning since I had woken up and freaked out at being in this mansion? It felt like I had been searching for the truth for days...

I took a deep breath like Jazz taught me to do when I was stressed out and close to breaking point. I needed to remain calm if I wanted to figure out just what was going on with me. For once, Vlad wasn't trying to trick me or make me angry. He was only trying to help me this time. There were no evil plots or schemes. Just someone trying to help me, and needing my trust to do so.

_You know...you _can_ trust me and Vlad..._

"Friday. After school. Me, Sam and Tucker were walking home after Lancer's English class."

"_She purposely switched my hair dye at that stupid and pointless fundraiser to make my hair pink! _PINK_ DANNY! _**PINK!**_**"**__"Easy for you guys to say, you didn't have to scrub you hair for two days straight to get all the damn pink out." "Clockwork?" _

"We were walking home, talking about trying to organize my schedule from where I was so sleepy from tra- uh...ghost attacks...Yeah..." I may trust the man for right now but no way was I telling him about Clockwork. Not until I could be sure he wouldn't use the knowledge to 'further his own agenda' as he had so often put it.

"_Maybe you could try managing your time?"_

"BEWARE!_ I AM THE-"_

I couldn't help it. I chuckled. "Than the Box Ghost appeared and _tried_ to fight me. I just sucked him into the thermos without even having to use my powers...Tucker was still talking about managing my time. Me and Sam were talking about how well that went last time with Skulker hunting me-"

"Sam and I, Daniel." The fruitloop interrupted, a small smirk tugging at his lips. Jerk. He knew I wasn't all that good at English. Well, I was but, come on, who in the world actually remembered when to use the I? Fruitloop.

"_Yeah, last time we tried that I was almost captured, killed, and skinned to be a pelt on some maniac hunter's wall. Remember that Tuck?"_

"We were walking home and as I keep telling you, after that conversation all I remember is nothing. Just darkness." I looked up to see Vlad's expression. I knew that one. It was his calculating look. It either meant he knew something I didn't, or he was planning something. As such, this expression was very familiar to me.

"You sure? Surely your memories don't abruptly end there." Grr. I felt Maddie rub against my head again before placing her paws on the top of my head and leaning against me, as if she was trying to stop me from attacking Vlad. I than saw Vlad chuckle again at the sigh of Maddie leaning against my hair, causing my bangs to droop over my eyes. I don't care if I'm wearing a straight-jacket that restricts my powers and if I just got blasted by that stupidly-named-device of his! I could still take him!

"Yes! I'm sure! I keep telling you, the last thing I remember is Sam and Tuck talking and- ….Crap." I mutter to myself while looking at the fruitloop's smug look.

"_He fell over, didn't he?"_

"_Yep," "Tucker, it's your turn to carry him."_

"I fell asleep..." I muttered, cursing when I saw Vlad smirk.

"Sorry little badger, I don't think I heard you. Could you repeat that?" Grr...dang manipulative fruitloop! He is such a-

"I said I fell asleep on the sidewalk while walking home! There, happy?" I gritted my teeth as I heard his non-evil chuckle. Evil or not that chuckle was still starting to get pretty annoying. "Suppose that explains why I don't remember anything else while walking home. But that doesn't explain why memories of two weeks are missing! Not unless I was put into a self-induced coma..."

"Self-induced coma? You sound like you've been in one?" Vlad asked while looking a little confused. I had to try and stifle a laugh at the memory.

"I wanted to see how fast I could fly in ghost form before Technus popped up and threw me off course...Then that stupid brick wall-" I cut myself off as Vlad held a hand up for me to stop. I couldn't decide whether he was amused, concerned or exasperated. Or all three. Most likely it was the latter.

"Say no more. I think I can figure out what happened from there. How long?"

"One week. Would have been longer, but apparently it was around that time that I had discovered speed healing." I chuckled at the memory of how shocked Tucker and Sam had been when I woke up wondering why I was in a hospital. I was also laughing at how abruptly after I was asking what excuse they had given to my parents this time.

"Really?" I looked confused at the shocked expression on Vlad's face. What was surprising about a one-week coma and discovering speed healing? Wow...There was so much irony and sarcasm in that one-sentence thought... "Hm. Interesting. I didn't discover speed healing myself until about six years after gaining my powers. It really would've helped when I was in that blasted hospital though..."

"Seriously? I discovered something that took you six years and only took me one?" I felt myself beaming for some strange reason. I don't know why, but every time I get a compliment from Vlad it makes me really giddy. I suppose it was understandable, seeing as he had gotten his powers twenty years ago and knew them inside out. I mean, it took real effort to impress him.

"Yes. I suppose that might be due to your ice powers...They are used more for defensive purposes than offensive like my own fire powers..." I started losing attention as he trailed off about explaining the different cores. Why was he always so boring? I mean...who would pay attention to that? Well...I suppose since it was about my ghost-half and powers I should've payed a little more attention. I didn't really care though, I had enough issues dealing with my lost memories!

_Ugh, I feel horrible, it feels as if my whole body is being covered in flames! Really _hot_ flames! Why does it burn so badly? Everything hurts!_

"I woke up less than an hour after that," I saw Vlad's eyes snap back to my face as I started talking again. "I woke up feeling really hot. Like flames were covering my body. It really hurt...I remember getting up and taking a shower. Munching on Jazz's cookies as I was heading there."_ Jazz's cookies! A large smile split across my face without me even knowing as I saw the plate full of cookies on my bedside table._

"I remember seeing a white note from my parents," _I looked over to see a a piece of paper fluttering under the plate of cookies, courtesy to the breeze coming in from my open window. _"It was talking about how they went to hand Jazz her wallet and scan the surrounding area for ecto-unfriendlies." I stifled a giggle at the word they had used. My guess was that Dad had written that part of the note.

I suppose Vlad thought it had been Dad as well by the look of annoyance and slight amuesment on his face. Weird. Usually Vlad hated anything to do with my Dad. He _never_ laughed at anything Dad did. _Ever_. So why now...

"_Death has a funny way of changing everyone Daniel. Some see qualities in the ones that are now gone, ones that they had never noticed or had forgotten. Some blame themselves and become desperate and sullen. Others...others see their mistakes...all the ones they've made concerning the ones that are gone."_

I shivered again without really noticing what I was doing. Bet Vlad noticed though. Nothing ever gets by him. And I do mean nothing. Crazy fruitloop. For some strange reason, I giggled. Yes. I giggled. I have no freaking clue why, I just did. The upside was that it served to confuse Vlad quite a bit. That was satisfying.

"...What do you remember after the note?" Vlad asked, hesitant to interrupt my weird giggling fit. Couldn't really blame him. I'm sure Sam and Tucker would've been a little worried if I had burst into giggles too. What did happen after reading the note...ugh...this was so boring.

"Vl~ad! This is boring! Can't I just go read a book or something?...Why did I just ask that?" I was blinking rapidly, trying to get the crazy out of my head while Vlad stared at me oddly. Yeah, if I was him I would be staring oddly at me too. Ugh, why are my thoughts so confusing?

_Oh great, even my thoughts are turning more and more confusing!_

"My thoughts were confusing." I blinked when I said that. What the heck? Was I talking without even thinking? Judging by Vlad's expression I was pretty sure I was. Great. Now not even my thoughts are safe from the fruitloop... "That stupid burning pain came again after that...this time it was worse..." I paused as I suddenly felt really tired.

"Hey Vlad, this thing doesn't drain energy or anything, right?" I asked, wondering just why I felt so sleepy. I saw Vlad's surprised look, and than that stupid calculating one.

"Hm...no. It just suppressed your ghost powers. At least, that's what it did when I tested it."

"You test your stuff on yourself?" I asked in surprise. Didn't think he was that much of a fruitloop. I smirked as I saw his usual scowl. Ah...this was the fruitloop I knew!

"No Daniel. I only test things on myself when it involves halfas, and I make sure to run as many tests as I can first, to make sure it's safe."

"Sure you do," I muttered, secretly happy I had found a way to annoy him. Again. I do so love to aggravate him, it was just so fun. It also brings a sense of normalcy into my suddenly upturned life. How many times was my life gonna be tossed around until it finally settled into something that resembled a routine.

"Aren't we supposed to be talking about your suppressed memories here Daniel?" I smirked as he tried to divert the attention back to me. He was just so fun to annoy sometimes.

"Yeah yeah. I told you, everything is sketchy. And when I try to explain it I get really tired. Everything after the return of that burning pain is just flashes of a river, me annoying you, calling you twisted, and of me talking about pressing a stupid button. Things that don't make much sense apparently." I saw the calculating look and knew something bad was going to happen.

Looking back on what that one phrase he said next had caused, I would have given anything to have been able to stop it. To stop what had followed after those next few innocent words.

"Do you remember anything about the Nasty Burger?" Those two words. Those were the triggers into the world of memories that I had locked away. Now I knew why they had been locked up. It was to save my mind from shattering.

"_Listen up Danny. This is the last time I'm gonna repeat myself. Memories get suppressed for the simple reason of protecting the mind. More often than not, it's so the mind doesn't shatter under the pressure of what the memories contained. So say if someone important to you died in a traumatic way, than your mind would actually make you forget the memory of them dying. It would _suppress_ it..."_

That's what I had forgotten. I was no longer in that small corner of Vlad's living room. I was soaring through my memories. All of the ones that I had forgotten. Waking up at home. Taking a shower. Arguing with a voice that brought things up I had wanted to forget.

The burning pain. The picture shattering. The Nasty Burger exploding. All of their bodies...cold with death. Running from the Guys-in-White, being hit with that stupid exploding spike. Arriving at Vlad's, having a fever, Vlad helping me, me running away again and than screaming at Clockwork...

I remembered all of it. I remembered all of my loved ones dying.

I looked back over at Vlad who looked as if he was yelling something. Trying to get me to understand something. Don't know what though. Everything was mute. I saw Maddie open her mouth before darting under the couch, stepping forward than back and repeating. As if she wasn't sure she could help me or not.

Why were they freaking out so much? I blinked rapidly as I felt something cold and wet trail down my cheeks. Tears? Why was I crying? Why was Vlad still yelling? And shouldn't tears be warm? Mine felt icy, as if they were produced from my ice powers. But that couldn't be right...the ecto jacket locked my powers away.

My head jerked up as I heard a laugh. Not a normal happy laugh, but an evil one that took pleasure in another person's pain. I wasn't in Vlad's living room anymore. I was by myself. I was still tied up, but instead of watching a frantic Vlad and Maddie, I was in a dark red room. A red that was as thick and dark as blood...In front of me was a thick glass mirror, the only thing there. I wasn't imaging things. I had heard that laugh. _His_ laugh.

"Looks like the hero is a little upset, isn't he?" That voice...the same one that haunted my dreams even now. Every time I thought I was safe, it came back. Though I had stopped him from forming those two years ago, he was still there. Sucking away all of my hope. He was just like Spectra. A leech who fed off misery and fear. Who sucked away all hope and happiness. Evil incarnate. The thing had never had a heart.

"Enjoying the demise of all your friends and family, Danny?" Myself. "And here I was hoping I would be there to watch. Well...I suppose its all good in the end. After all, now that they're gone, there's nothing stopping _you_ from becoming _me_..."

"N-No...you...you're wrong! I promised..." I hated myself. I was stuttering and shaking like a little kid, tears still streaming down my cheeks. I looked over into the mirror and saw my eyes flash red than back to blue. A blood red...just like his. They flickered a few more times, each time they stayed red longer and longer, the blue only coming back for a split second before vanishing again.

"You _promised?_ Ha ha! Still ever the child I see! You cannot change my past Danny. Your future...you _will_ turn into me."

"No! I won't! I beat you once, I'll just beat you again!" I shivered against the jacket, it started to feel more like ropes digging into my skin. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to focus, trying to stop the fear from overwhelming me.

"You _beat_ me? Ha! Yes, with the help of an all-powerful ghost of time and your pathetic little friends. You have neither of them now. No friends. No family. No Clockwork. You're all alone." I looked back into the mirror. Now along with my eyes glowing red my hair had started flickering into the color white before being turned into flames. My skin as well was growing a more pale blue.

"T-That's...that's not true! I'm not alone! I...I still have Vlad!" Even as I said it I felt the hope continue draining. Hadn't I been turned into that monster by Vlad? He had ripped my ghost half out, the ghost side that had been filled with bitterness and hatred.

"That cheese-head? Ha! You're even more of a child than I thought!" I shivered at the voice. I looked back into the mirror as my skin finished turning into his before my clothes started turning into my hazmat suit, this time a cape appearing behind me. Flickering in and out of existence before coming back longer and longer each time. I tried to look away, to look anywhere else, but the mirror drew my attention back to it. Always.

"I am not a child! I will never become you! You are not me!" I screamed, hoping that Vlad would find a way, _some _way to wake me up. This had to be a bad nightmare. Something the trauma of all my memories coming back to me at once had created!

"This isn't a nightmare Daniel. It's real." I looked back at the mirror and I saw myself smile. An evil smile that haunts me every waking second. I saw myself break the restraints of the ecto straight-jacket and stand up, smirking down at me as I continued to shiver. Wrapped up in something that restricted my movement and made my ghost powers useless. "I am as real as you are."

"You are me," I looked as the mirror, the me inside it taking on Dan's form and look. As the change finally finished, I was looking at a sixteen-year-old evil me. A sixteen-year-old Dan. My future...The me inside the mirror was now the one speaking to me. "You are me now...and forever..."

"No...no...no...NO! NO! _NO!_ _NO! __**NO! **__**NO!**_" I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to find some way to claw myself out of the room. Find a way back to Vlad and away from the nightmare in front of me. They were really gone, weren't they? They were never coming back. I was right where I was when I first became Dan. Clockwork hadn't stopped the future from happening.

He had postponed it...

"DANIEL!" I gasped as I looked into Vlad's eyes, his own full of fear and worry. I looked around and finally noticed I was no longer in that blood red room, with that mirror that taunted me on what I was too become. It was just me and Vlad alone in the mansion. And Maddie too of course.

"V-Vlad...?" I stuttered. This couldn't be happening. Please let all of this just be another nightmare. Let it all be something my mind came up with as I slept. Let me wake up and laugh about it with Jazz, Sam and Tucker as we walk to school. Please. Please. _Please_. "Clockwork...let none of this be real."

"D-Daniel. You have to calm down, your powers are going out of control!" I looked up at Vlad as tears kept streaming down my face. Wow, Vlad looked really...scared. As if he was about to lose something important to him. I heard a shattering sound and looked down. The straight-jacket had frozen solid. Than it had shattered.

I don't know which had shattered first. The jacket. Or my mind. Maybe they had both shattered at the same time...All I knew was that I was alone. Bitterly alone. No one was here anymore to stop me. I was going to become him. The future was now truly inevitable. I could no longer hide and run away from it. Could no longer hide from _him._

"DANIEL! _CALM DOWN!_ I'm not going to let anything happen to you! I'm not going to let you get hurt! Please Daniel! Calm down and _trust_ me!" Vlad was saying I should trust him? Why? What's the point...he'll just be even more hurt when I turn on him...After all, it's only a matter of time until the future comes to pass. There's no changing it this time either.

I felt my body shudder but I was numb to the cold. I felt Vlad hug me as I cried into his chest, but I didn't feel his warmth of his hug or the burn of my lungs as I gasped for breath. I heard him murmur into my ear that everything was going to be alright. That we would get through this. I felt no reassurance at his words.

I felt nothing at all. I was numb to everything that was happening. He had done what he had wanted to do all along. He had gotten what he had always craved.

My mind...was now truly shattered.

"There's no stopping the future now...nothing can stop him anymore...I will die, and Phantom...will become evil..."

"_You don't get it, do ya? **I'm **still here. **I **still **exist!** That means **you** still turn into **me**..._

I had finally lost. . .

* * *

So...do ya wanna kill me know? Cause all you guys do is praise me on how good this is. And when you do tell me what I did wrong, it was just grammatical stuff! Come on! If I was you guys I would be stabbing the author with a knife or something! ...Uh...never mind me... *whistles innocently*


	8. New Life

I hated this. I hated this so much. So very much. Why did this, this, this whole _mess_, ever have to happen to _me_? I don't just mean the whole Nasty-Burger-explosion and getting-forced-to-live-with-your-enemy thing either, I mean, _all _of it! Every single thing that had ever happened to me since I had made that _stupid _choice to go into that _stupid_ portal and press that _stupid _button!

Why couldn't I have just grown up and live as a normal kid in a normal household with a normal family and normal run-of-the-mill friends. But no, instead of normal, I get the opposite. I get to belong to a wacko family made up of ghost-hunting obsessed freaks and a super-genius sister who did nothing but constantly try to evaluate my mental health. And believe me when I say constantly.

I mean, not even my _friends _were normal. One was goth and a ultra-recycle-vegetarian or whatever, and the other was a ultra tech geek with no love life whatsoever. Believe me when I say he had _no _love life. Not even my town was normal either! I mean, the town was constantly attacked by _ghosts_! We had _ghost drills _for God's sake!

"Daniel...you _are_ going to have to get out of bed at some point dear boy..." Stupid-annoying-old-man-fruitloop. Why couldn't he just leave me to mourn the rest of my soon-to-be short life in peace. I mean, he has no _idea_ just what was going to happen to him if he continued trying to help. He has absolutely _no_ _clue_ what will happen if I let him _help _me. If I let him try to _cure _me and my _depression._ I just have to stay as far away from him as possible. For his own good.

And mine.

It'll be simple. I just have to avoid talking or interacting with Vlad long enough to where he won't get attached to me. Just long enough 'till I turn. I have to fight it, I just can't get too close to him. If I do...

If I do...

"Daniel! Are you even listening to anything I say?" I perked my head up a little out of habit at the yelling. Figured I better at least listen to him a little bit, if nothing else but to make him yell at me less. Wiggling around and twisting a little in the cocoon of blankets I was buried under, I managed to peek one eye out from under the thick woolen fabric that was threatening to drown me.

That was when my eye caught sight of Vlad. No real surprise there. What was a surprise was that instead of looking angry and P'Oed like I _knew_ he would be, he instead looked _worried_. Like, a worrying parent who thought that their kid was sick and dying or something.

Heh. He might as well as just finish off the job that the portal started, I'm already half-dead as it is. "That is it Daniel! I am through letting you mope around in your room like it's the end of the world!" Whatever, it might as well be the end of the world. Or at least, the end of _my _world. I mean, I had lost-

"Hey! Put me _down_ fruitloop!" Vlad had used my lapse in paying attention, which was surprising in itself since I usually do pay attention. I mean, you kinda have to when you deal with wayward and violent ghosts every day. Point is, he now had me picked up and tossed over his shoulder like a lump of vegetables. At the same time the black rings I knew so well had begun transforming him into Plasmius.

Was he just a friggin' idiot? Or was he really as reckless as I was? I mean, I _can't_ leave my room! If I do...if I do than the past will just repeat itself all over again. I'll get close to Vlad, let him help me, let him fix me. Let him rip out my ghost-half so I'll have a chance at becoming normal again! Than...than I'll become...

I'll become a monster...

"Not a chance dear boy. You are _going_ to eat even if I have to stuff the food down your throat myself!" Well, _someone_ was being quite the testy little super-mega-villain today. Than again, I suppose me spending two straight days in bed, without really bothering to eat or sleep, would tend to piss him off a little bit. Just a little though. Well, I guess I could always be worse off...

Like I could now be a sixteen-year-old orphan and ward of the state with all of my life-long friends and closest family dead. Thus leaving me to live with the man who had once been my arch-rival and greatest enemy and was now destined to turn me into a monster and kill my human half and Amity Park. Along with the rest of the Earth just for good measure. Yeah Fenton, it could be a _whole_ lot worse.

"Now stay here while I go and make us something to eat," Vlad muttered under his breath, mostly to himself, while scowling and throwing me down in one of the _uncomfortable _kitchen chairs. From the ceiling. Jerk.

I mean, if he really _was_ a billionaire, you think he could afford to get more comfortable kitchen chairs. Guess I'm just grateful it isn't one of his insanely huge kitchens, but instead one of the smaller normal-sized ones you would see in Sam's house or something. Granted it was still pretty extravagant, and it probably _cost _as much as my house.

"Kinda hard to move when I'm tied down with ecto-restraints, Vlad," I muttered back under my breath, the need to answer back with something witty and smug overpowering my personal vow of not interacting with Plasmius anymore.

Hey, when you're half-dead and always dealing with ghosts, you learn to be as witty as you are strong. Annoys them to no end and gets 'em angry, which makes for a much fairer fight. At least, it did, now I can beat most of the ghosts without hardly trying. A few I can beat without even going ghost. Example, the Box Ghost.

At least, I use to beat the ghosts without hardly even trying... Guess I wouldn't be fighting ghosts anymore. Or the Red Huntress, aka Valerie. No more dodging my parent's attacks, they never knew I had been Phantom all along. Heck, in an even stranger turn of events, I wouldn't even be fighting Vlad either.

Well, we might still argue while I'm here, I mean, it's kinda hard to get rid of almost two years of animosity. It's almost habit to accuse him of trying to kill my dad and marry my mom shoot him on sight every time I see him. Hey, the guy was a fruitloop, still is too! You learn not to take chances with the crazies.

Shaking my head back and forth I tried to get off that train of thought. I really didn't need to be thinking of ghosts and fighting Vlad right now. What I did need to be thinking about though was trying to get out of these stupid, and thick, pink rays tying me down. God, I still can't believe that man's attacks are pink. I mean, really Plasmius? _Pink_?

Another flash of black light out of the corner of my vision let me know that Vlad had now changed back into his human-half after hunting down what looked like some pots. They looked to be new and big, he also had a whole lot of spices. Like, a whole counter was just filled with different kinds of spices.

"Really Vlad, it's like you expect me to disappear. Not like I have anywhere to disappear too." Wow, even to my own ears my voice sounded kinda dead and lifeless. Again, wow...there are a _lot_ of dead, half-dead, and half-ghost puns to use when you're actually, ya know, half-dead/ghost. Huh,Tucker would have loved to hear that one. Probably would have added it to that list of half-ghost/ghost puns he had been working on...

"Technicalities dear boy." Jerk. I tried to turn my head around to see what he was doing as sounds of banging started up again. It sounded like he was moving pots and pans around to make space. I couldn't see that well, but I could smell and wow, those spices were _strong_. I mean, they were _really_ strong. I don't even think half of those kinds of spices are legal in this country.

Than again, knowing Vlad, they're probably not. A sigh of annoyance and frustration escaped before I could suppress it. Great, stuck in a kitchen with my mortal enemy, well, half-mortal enemy, making soup. Could it get any weirder? Another glance back to see him reading some of the spices and I decided the only really interesting thing left to do would be to see just where I was stuck at.

I mean, yeah, I knew I was in the kitchen, but it looked to be one of those kinda outer kitchens. If the large glass doors and huge glass windows showing the forest in the back of the property were any kind of indication.

The kitchen also looked to be made of what looked like some kinda natural materials. I mean, it looked like some sorta homey family-type kinda kitchen that house-wives would just die to have in their own homes. Sam would just die if she saw this place, and I don't mean just cause it looked like the one her Mom had wanted in that Billionaire weekly magazine.

Hm, it smelled kinda like lemons in here. Another enhanced sense of my ghost-half was smell. It had actually come in handy a from time to time. Like when me and Jazz got home from school and I smelled what Mom was cooking. It was pretty easy from there to tell if we should run away or not.

I was just starting to admire the dark wooden cabinets, which looked to be made out of something like oak or the like, when I realized something huge and utterly life-changing.

Vlad Masters/Plasmius, five-time billionaire of the year and evil half-ghost hybrid who came up with the most evil and wicked of plans...was cooking. He was standing in a homey house-wife kitchen, wearing a black apron, standing over a sink, and filling up a pot with water. Well...I guess it was better than him wearing a pink apron. If only slightly. That sweet little mental image had me biting the inside of my cheek so I could hold in the laughing fit that was just _begging _to be let loose.

I don't really think he would appreciate me making fun of his apron. In fact, I think he would be quite put out. Which usually meant pain for me, and lots of it. Or humiliating taunts. Funny joke-around Vlad wasn't all that fun to be around sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean ever.

"What...are you doing?" I couldn't help it. I just had to ask. Even if getting closer to him _was_ a bad idea, it was just to strange and out-of-the-normal, even for half-ghosts, for me _not_ to comment. I mean...he was _cooking_! I'm sure Sam and Tuck would've found it just as weird and scary as I did. Heck, even _Jazz _would have been mildly disturbed.

A light and sudden weight on the top of my lap caused me to stumble out of my current train of thoughts and glance down at just _what_ had jumped into my lap. Turned out to be Maddie, Vlad's white cat, who was purring and rubbing up against me. Great...Vlad's cat has taken a liking to me... And if that weren't enough, it was just plain weird, and gross, to think of the cat's name in my head when it had my mother's name.

"What does it look like I'm doing dear boy?" Heh. You could just hear the sheer irritation and over-abundance of annoyance in his voice at having to cook. And cook _soup_ of all things. Or maybe he was still kinda mad I hadn't eaten in God knows how long... Suppose it really could be either. Or both.

"Well. It looks like you're cooking. But it's simply difficult to wrap my mind around the concept." Wow. Where was this logical, empathetic voice devoid of emotions and suspicion and filled with large vocabulary words when I had needed it?

Like when I had to escape Lancer's class to fight a ghost. Or when the school nurse would ask me why I had missed check-up day. When my parents caught me sneaking into the lab to empty a full Fenton thermos. Or when they had caught sneaking back inside to my room after fighting a ghost. Or sneaking out, as was most usually the case.

"Amusing little badger, amusing." Hm, I thought it was too. Wonder why he's not laughing if he thought it was so funny. Damn, I'm sounding more and more like him and Clockwork by the second. "I may be a billionaire _now_, but before that I was just college-Vlad. Which meant I had absolutely little to no spending money and had to cook for both Jack and myself. That was a challenge all in itself..."

Even if you weren't paying attention to the conversation, you could just hear the irritation and annoyance in his voice. It didn't match though. His expression and his tone. He _sounded_ irritated, like, _really _irritated, but he was smiling... He also looked amused. No...he was amused but it was something else too.

Happy.

"Didn't you and Dad take turns cooking?" At least, that was what Dad had told me one of the few times I had worked up the nerve to voluntarily ask about the fruitloop. I had been hoping for some embarrassing story or some sorta weakness or fear, not what they had eaten every night for dinner.

"If you count eating nothing but fudge and industry-manufactured chips as dinner, than yes, he sometimes cooked dinner," Vlad rolled his eyes as he spoke in what I guess was his response to the question. He was also staring to heat up the tap-water with some of his ectoplasmic fire. Which, as I had guessed, was also pink.

So his attacks are pink, he knows how to cook, and he always dresses immaculately. And he was still chasing after my Mom? Either he was _really _far back in that little closet of his, or he was very girly. Speaking of my Mom, it was around the point that Vlad was heating up the water that cat-Maddie was laying on my shoulders and was looking to be settling down for a nap.

Great. Vlad's creepy little cat still loves me. "I do have to admit though. Yours was much better than Jack's." Well, that was out of nowhere and make absolutely no sense. At all.

"What are you talking about?" I struggled to turn my head and glare at him, again, out of habit. Than I saw Vlad roll his eyes again out of the corner of my vision, as if I was some ignorant child who had just asked something that was obvious to everyone in the room but me. I say this because it really did look like that kind of eye-roll. I should know, I get them every time I ask the man a freaking question.

"I've been to most of the Christmas Truce parties myself Daniel. All the idiots do every year is talk about how marvelous your fudge is. Some of them actually plan raids on your house simply because they can't wait for the Truce party just so they can taste it. I must agree with them though, it is quite delicious." He...actually ate it? And liked it? And here I half-thought he would say it was disgusting out of spite. I mean...getting compliments out of him was like getting blood from stone.

Or fudge from my Dad... Wait, that was why more ghosts raided my house after and before Christmas? And here I thought it was just where they wouldn't be able to attack me during the Truce. Well... that certainly explained why most of the fights would always happen in the kitchen.

Shaking off _that_ thought, I turned my head back to Vlad when he started talking again. At this point he was cutting up some vegetables to go in the soup. Cat-Maddie seemed to notice the smell of the soup because her tail was twitching in what looked like anticipation.

"Since fudge was all Jack could really cook, and Madeline did no better I assure you-" Madeline? My mom? Why the heck is he calling her...Madeline... "-it was often up to Harriet and I to do all the cooking ourselves," Vlad finished up his little college story with what looked to be an exasperated expression, but, it was really weird. It was like...gentle... Peaceful. "Now, I believe the soup is finally done."

Wow, that was pretty quick, that fire of his must be pretty strong. Vlad walked around the stove and counters for a few more seconds before taking off the black apron off and serving some soup from the cooking pot and – whoa! Was that pink writing on his apron?

I now have this urge to break the ecto-restraints and got find out just what was written on the apron. Great, now I was gonna be tempted to try and read the apron at every chance I got.

Shaking off that lovely thought, I watched as he picked up the three soup-filled bowls from before, I had wondered what the third one was for before he placed my own bowl in front of me before waving a hand to lift most of the restraints that were tying me down.

Drama-queen. Still, I did say most, which meant he kept the large, and strong, one around my stomach that tied me to the chair still up and going. Jerky fruitloop. He put the smaller and third bowl that I had wondered about on the table for, I guess, cat-Maddie. She had than leaped off my shoulders and was walking at her own pace towards the soup. Like she had all the time in the world to do what she wanted.

Speaking of drama-queens in the mansion...

"Did you cook this soup using ecto-energy?" I asked while scooping up some of the murky looking broth and eating a spoonful of it. Or would it be drinking? You could never really tell with soup. I guess either word would really work to describe it...

"Yes...why?" It was kinda funny. He honestly looked really confused as to why cooking with ecto-energy should really matter or not. I almost laughed. Almost. It was still hard enough to even think about smiling after all that had happened, let alone laughing about anything.

"Mom used to cook with ecto-energy too. But she ended up bringing the food to life almost all the time. Actually, it wasn't really almost, it was always. Like the Christmas turkey when I was five, and the fraken-weinners when I was fourteen..." Again, I was really, _really_ tempted to laugh at the expression that was showing on his face.

I tried to hide another smirk as I started kicking my feet back and forth a little bit while eating another spoonful of the soup, it was actually kinda good, and looking at the table. It wasn't as posh and high-to-do as most of the stuff he kept around his mansion. I have to say, it was kinda nice to eat at a kitchen table that didn't look like it had cost something around a couple thousand dollars.

Bet my allowance, or what little I use to have, that it actually cost twice that amount. He was just good at hiding how much things were when he wanted to.

"Well," Vlad was trying not to laugh either as he took another sip, or bite, of his soup. You could just tell, the amusement he was trying to hide was simply radiating off of him in _waves_, "That does sound an awful lot like something Madeline would certainly do... Also sounds an awful lot like that incident with the fish..." I don't think he meant for the last part to be heard. Guess he forgot about the super-senses from being a half-dead human.

I took a few more bites of the soup at the ensuing silence, not really tasting it like I should. I mean, sure it was good, and it smelled really delicious. At least, that's what my senses were telling me. My brain just didn't want to listen.

It was like, even though it did taste really rich and delicious, it also didn't really taste like anything much at all. Don't get me wrong, I was eating and tasting it just fine, but I just didn't...taste it. It was just like my eyes telling me that the colors of the food in the soup were bright and vibrant and looked to mesh together perfectly. But, my brain just didn't think the colors really looked that colored. Just...dull.

It was really confusing and annoying all at the same time. Suppressing a sigh I quickly took another spoonful of soup, again, not really tasting it or noticing how amazing it looked. Or smelled. It sounded really familiar what I was going through right now...

What was the disorder Jazz was telling me about when I was helping her study... Something about persons. No, uh, de...de...depersonalization! That was it! Depersonalization disorder! Where it felt like the mind wasn't really in the body while it went through the motions of every day life. Ya know, ordinary day-to-day stuff.

That was a lot like how felt right now. The soup looked dull, it tasted boring, and it smelled safe. Ya know, all in all, it was just... _Ordinary. _

Hm, I wonder, how long have I actually _wished_ for things to be ordinary? I felt myself zone out of focus as my thoughts turned to the past, and deeper. It sometimes happened, Tuck and Sam told me I just kept doing what I had been doing in the first place, but my mind just wasn't really paying attention to the motions and movements.

Just like now. So I assumed while all my focus turned to my thoughts, I was still eating, or drinking, my soup. God that has come in handy so many times, like when I'm busy doing homework and Jazz or my parents are trying to tell me how I'm throwing my life away.

Or when me and Vlad are fighting and he starts talking about how everything would be better if I just came and agreed to be his son. So yeah, lots of help with the depersonalization thing from time to time. But, being ordinary was...it just wasn't right, even though I've sometimes wished for that.

Wished to just live a normal life without having to slip away from some adult or kid and go ghost every few seconds and save some idiot from getting captured. Or killed. Well, it looks like I finally got my wish of being ordinary. No more ghost attacks. No more fighting. No more saving a bunch of idiots from the Box Ghost. No more hiding secrets from others. No more...anything...

"Daniel?" Oh crap. I spaced out, again. Vlad had probably been, and still was, watching me, the entire time. He was probably still worried I would go nuts and lose control of my powers again, like I did a few days ago. Well, he wouldn't have to worry too much there. I wouldn't use my powers anymore, not if I could help it. I would make sure not to give him _any _reason to take them away from me.

To go down that road again...

At the sudden thought I scoffed to myself, making Vlad and Maddie glance at me, both looking confused and concerned at the same time. As if not using my powers would change anything about the outcome of the future. All I knew was that I couldn't get attached to Vlad. Even if that won't save me from becoming Dan...it _will_ save him from suffering too much heartache when it happens.

Hm. Guess that's what people meant when they had started talking about that damn hero-complex of mine... Damn. I think I ended up staring at the empty soup bowl in front of me for too long without answering cause Vlad somehow managed to end up dragging me away from the table and back to my room again. Without me noticing. One, how does he do that? And two, does he _enjoy_ doing that? Or am I just _that_ fun to haul around over the shoulder?

"Daniel?" My head snapped up to Vlad as he started talking again. Might as well pay attention now, otherwise he's gonna kill me. Or care for me... "It's been two days. You need to shower. Now."

"Whatever," I muttered without thinking. It's just one of those reflexes, where you just have to answer whatever to an adult's concerns. At least, that's what Jazz and Sam think. And if they agree on something, you just know it has to be true. At least, to an extent. A second later my arms were filled with fluffy white towels and fresh, new, clothing.

"Go shower, and trust me Daniel, if I have to, I'll bathe you myself." That fruitloop! He really would! You could just see it in his mocking little smirk/glare! Ugh! Crazy old man in need of more cats. I felt myself scowl before turning away and walking into the bathroom, which was very large. The second I was in I made sure to turn the lock on the bathroom door, hearing the loud click in the otherwise quiet room before a loud laugh broke out from the other side. Fruitloop.

He was laughing. Again. I sighed at the sheer crazy I had been forced into living with before setting the clothes and towels down on the pristine black marble counters before glancing in the mirror to check the surely atrocious bed-hair I had to have by now. I mean, two days sleeping in bed was sure- Huh...I was smiling.

"_I don't like this," I muttered while fingering the strange and heavy medallion that was now around Tucker's neck. Out of the corner of my vision I was watching Sam walk towards the middle of the room, I guess it was a room, I mean, we were in a tower!_

"_You're going to like this even less," Sam spoke up from in front of what looked like a huge TV screen. I mean, it was one of the huge ones that guys would just _kill _to have in their rooms. And what was Sam talking about anyways, how could this get any worse or weirder? She's got to be...wrong...oh no... _

_A thick and large black caption box on the bottom of the screen said that it was Amity Park. Ten years from now...but...it couldn't be. There was no _way that_ was Amity Park. Even if it _was _ten years from now!_

_I mean, the whole town was practically destroyed! Some evil ghost jerk was the one doing it too! And he looked _happy_ about the destruction! Where were my parents and Val? The Guys-in-White, the other ghost hunters? Heck, even Vlad wouldn't have stood there and do nothing! So...if they weren't there than...where was I? _

_Huh...why does that ghost's outfit look famili- is that the DP symbol that Sam drew? The symbol that belonged to Danny Phantom _alone._ But...that meant..._

"_Ha ha ha ha ha!" _

"_I think I'm seeing your future. And you're kinda a jerk." That was...that was me?_

"Damn it!" I hissed while clenching my teeth as hard I could and leaning against the sink. I glanced at the mirror again to see that a cold sweat had broken out over my body. That was the worst flashback yet! Still...it did teach me something. I can't be happy. Not after what I was going to do. That...that was the first time I saw what my future was to be. The first time I saw what a monster I was going to become. The first time I was truly scared of my ghost-self.

Damn it! I'm getting way to attached to Vlad! Which. Is. Not. Good. At all. I gotta keep my distance from him now on! If I get to close, he's gonna start caring even more for me, which means when I finally do turn into Dan, he's gonna be heartbroken and blame himself. He's gonna...who knows what he's gonna do when I become Dan this time around. Heck, who knows what _I'm _gonna do...

It could be the same as before or it could be different. After all, I was supposed to have become Dan two years ago. Who knows what will happen this time. I might...even kill Vlad when I become him. My ghost-half is stronger than it was. Last time, when I was fourteen, I was weaker. Even as Dan than I didn't have the strength or mind-set to really _kill_ someone.

Now though... After two years of fighting ghosts and seeing all the things that my powers were capable of... I really do think there will be a greater chance of me killing Vlad when I turn. Far greater. I hissed under my breath as I felt the hot water hit my skin after I had turned on the shower-head. I gotta say, nothing that man had was anything less than extravagant.

I gotta distance myself from him. That's the only way. I gotta make it to where he'll lose interest in me and won't care what happens to me anymore. Unlikely since it's been two years after proclaiming in his all high-and-mighty-holier-than-thou voice that he would be my father one day...but still!

Hm... Maybe if I stop acting like _myself_ around him, he'll stop being interested. I mean, if it's me he wants, I just won't be me! So instead of being emotional, like everyone says I am, I'll act emotionless. I'll become someone he'll won't want to care about anymore.

I'll become nothing but a puppet. Something to be used and uncared for. I felt my hand run through my hair in frustration and out of habit before turning off the water and stepping out, making sure to grab a towel before turning intangible to dry my body off. So much for not using my powers anymore...

"Emotionless huh... Well, it's a shaky plan, but it's also all I got..." Now to suppress any and all emotions. _That _might be the hard part... Considering how I usually don't think before shouting out what's on my mind. Maybe Sam was right. I probably should have taken the Drama elective with her last year...

I stared at myself in the mirror again, noticing how dead I looked. Oh hey, what do ya know, another pun. I sighed at my own idiocy before unlocking the door and walking out, noticing Vlad was leaning against the wall with a vacant expression. Well, vacant for him anyways, which means he was scheming something for me. Cat-Maddie was also there by his feet, having taken the stairs to reach us. I had no idea how she had found us though, I mean, I couldn't even find my way around this place if I tried.

While I was musing on _that _thought, cat-Maddie had walked over to me in two seconds flat and was now purring and sitting by my side like a faithful dog- err, cat. Weird. Most animals tended to avoid me and the other ghosts since they can sense that we already have death surrounding us. But maybe it's just where she's been living with Vlad all this time and is used to being around people like us.

"Ah, Daniel. Perfect timing," Vlad smirked, finally noticing my presence. Wow, he must have really been lost in his evil plans and thoughts if he didn't even notice me. His guard was _way _better than mine was.

That train of thought was promptly cut off since I felt my wrist grabbed and quickly being tugged along. For once I just went along with the man without resistance. I mean, why bother, he's just gonna get his way in the end anyways. He always does. He seemed to notice my lack of trying to escape though, cause his smile fell a little and his grip became gentler.

So much for trying to distance myself from him. No matter what I do the fruitloop loves me! Argh! How hard can it be to get someone to _not_ care about you? I felt myself slightly stumble after hearing a voice or something that sounded like it was saying _pretty hard._ Only...it was really, _really_ faint. I know Vlad didn't say it, I don't even think he _heard _it. Whatever _it_ is. Or was.

"Since you're rather stubborn right now about doing nothing but mopping little badger, you'll be spending the rest of the day around me." Wonderful. I was stuck trailing after Vlad like a lost little puppy. Said man must have felt my joy because he smirked before tugging my wrist slightly as we turned another extravagant corner. Was anything in this house_ not _extravagant?

He than stopped in front of a large oak door, which turned out to be locked. Vlad sighed before moving to shift around in his pockets for what I guess was the key. If that noise of aggravation indicated anything, I would say he didn't find it.

"Drat," I heard him slightly mutter to himself before glancing at me than back at the door. He than glanced down at cat-Maddie before smirking. Whatever he was thinking he must have decided on an answer because he quickly let out a sharp, short whistle before turning both me and him intangible. At the same time cat-Maddie had jumped up onto my shoulders, meaning she had gone intangible with us. "Problem solved!"

I had to resist the scoff and roll of my eyes as he tugged me along through the door to, what I guess, was his private study. It looked the same as it had the last few times I had been it. Vlad quickly let the intangibility and my wrist go before walking over to his desk, which, no real surprise, was also extravagant.

"You may do whatever you wish as long as you are quiet and don't leave the room." I felt myself quirk an eyebrow at how many lengths he was going through to ensure I didn't go and commit suicide or something like that. I mean, he _hated _people in his study. And I really do mean hate. It kinda made me happy at how much he really did care.

Than a memory of a destroyed Amity Park flashed through my head. That killed the happy. Thoroughly and completely. I sighed under my breath while sitting down on the plush red couch in front of the empty fireplace, looking for something to take my mind off the future for once. That's when cat-Maddie decided to jump up on the couch and snuggle in beside me. It was so hard not to aww at the moment and make Vlad tease me even more.

My eyes searched the room one more time, eventually landing on a notebook and spare pen on the table in front of me. Right, first order of business, change the cat's name to something that won't make me cringe when I say or think it. First of all, she looked nothing like Mom, not even the fur was the same as her hair color. It was pure silky white. So we needed a name that meant white.

That ruled it down to a few possibilities. Well, Finn in Irish means white...or did it mean fair? Ah well, might as well as write it down anyways. Than there was that Welsh name that Sam was telling me about...what was it...Gwen! I scribbled down those two names and a few others as Vlad started up his laptop and began typing away. It was either world domination plans, or he was checking on his companies.

Really I could never tell the difference between the two. I scribbled a few more names before reading the list and immediately deciding a few didn't sound right _at all_. Example, Pocahontas, I don't even wanna _know _where that one came from. It seemed kinda out there to begin with. Next was Daisy and Lilac. Sure, they were great names for flowers and girls like Paulina, but for a cat? And _this _cat.

I mean, this cat put up with me and Vlad and a bunch of other ghosts without a hint of fear. I remember one time when Cujo had chased her, she just ended up tricking him back into the ghost zone using Vlad's portal! The name of a flower _definitely _didn't suit her. Than there was Gwendolyn. It was really the same thing as Gwen, but neither seemed to fit her all that well. Neither did Finn for that matter.

I mean, those names were okay but, again, they didn't really suit her. I almost let out a noise of aggravation before I remembered I was supposed to be showing a lack of emotions. I settled for glaring at one of the bookshelves surround the walls as Vlad kept typing at his keys. The way he was pounding on them made me think he was a little angry at whatever it was he was doing. Than the phone rang.

Normally I would care and try to mess it up somehow, but I figured there wasn't much I could do to mess it up since Vlad was already yelling into the phone about plans that were only experimental or something. I glanced over at him to see he was doing his best to not stand up, turn ghost, and go beat some sense into the people annoying him. Again, I had to control the urge to smirk, smile, or laugh.

I want back to thinking of a name for the former cat-Maddie, hoping something would come up. I glanced a book that seemed to catch my eye before I stood up and went to pick it up, again, not thinking about what I was doing. It was something about Egyptian mythology. Flipping through a few pages it soon started talking about all the different kinds of gods and goddess'. Than I slowed down when it started talking about one I had actually heard before.

It was talking about the goddess named Bast. The book said something about her being the goddess of fertility and pregnancy. A symbol for woman. All that made me think of was the movie where the woman gets cat powers. Bast was supposed to be a protector of cats as well, often having the head of a lion or house cat. Said to represent the duality in all woman. The fierceness and caring nature of them.

Well, that sounded like the perfect name. I mean, Vlad's cat was fierce for sure, she didn't even bat an eye at seeing all the ghosts around her. More like she expected them to do what she wanted. She was also pretty sweet, if the cuddling she did when around me meant anything.

"Bast," I softly muttered, far too quiet for Vlad to hear. Apparently it wasn't soft enough for cat-Maddie to hear since she perked her ears up and looked straight at me while still lying down. It was one of _those _looks. The one that makes you think animals know a lot more than we give them credit for. "Bast it is than," I whispered back while hearing cat-Maddie's, or, well, I guess now it was _Bast's _purring start up again.

Well, that solved one matter. Now what could I do? I put the book back carefully, noticing how old it actually was, before going back to sit down by Bast. Said cat gently purred before cuddling up to me even more than before.

"Little cretins," Vlad muttered while snapping the cell-phone shut and finally standing up, shutting the computer down. He hadn't been on there long, but he was already pinching the bridge of his nose like he was trying not to get a headache, which it looked like was a loosing battle from how agitated he looked to be. "They're big boys and girls, they don't need to call me for every single thing that goes wrong."

I guess I never really thought about how even Vlad has everyday troubles as a halfa. I mean, it just never really crossed my mind that he did anything besides sit in his mansion and plan ways to make my life a living nightmare. I wonder why he never had Nocturne do anything to me now that I think about it. More nightmares would have meant better odds for him to swindle me into joining me.

Not that I hadn't had plenty nightmares already, what with dealing with all that I had dealt with. Half-ghost, half-high school student, and not to mention living in a house full of ghost-hunters. Than there was being analyzed by my sister every single day. Trying to live a normal life. Yeah...not that easy.

The phone started ringing again, snapping me out of my musings to see that Vlad looked mad again and that I was absently scratching Bast's ears. Heh, it _was _funny to see Vlad lose his temper for once. And not at me either. Vlad was talking on the phone again, doing his best not the scream into the thing as he explained just why the plans were experimental and why they shouldn't have been put into production yet.

Wonder what plan he was talking about. It was either really dangerous, or really stupid. Or both. I had seen plenty of things like that. Case in point, the Fenton Thermos. It was really stupid cause it looked like a soup can, but it was also really dangerous because once you got caught in that thing, it felt like you crammed into a small box. Which was _very _uncomfortable and _very _annoying.

"Maybe I should just melt the darn thing and be done with it," Vlad muttered while snapping the phone shut, causing me to suppress another smirk. Two years of him being nothing but boring and annoying, and he chooses _now _to be funny and entertaining to watch? Just my luck. Fate really does hate me.

I was tempted to laugh _again_ as the cell-phone started ringing once more, Vlad glancing at the ID before scowling even more than before. And that was saying something. I was than faced with the greatest test of my resolution not to show emotions. Vlad had now used his powers to lit a pink fire in the grate. It was so easy to guess what he was about to do with that innocent little phone.

My suspicions were proved right when he tossed the phone in the grate with an uncaring look, probably thinking he could always get another one. Which he probably could. Wasn't there a saying for that though? Don't shoot the messenger? I mean, sure it must have been annoying to keep being called by the same people, but he didn't have to _melt _the thing.

My thoughts only wanted to make me laugh even more, meaning it was a little hard to breath correctly. Hopefully Vlad was to annoyed at his company and failed plans to really notice, cause I'm sure he'd think something was wrong and start to freak out as usual.

"Hm, Daniel, why is your hair still wet?" Calming down from my attempted laughing fit, I noticed that Vlad was standing behind me looking at my head confusedly. Huh, guess I forgot to dry it, since the intangible thing doesn't work on my hair all that well.

"Intangibility doesn't work on hair," I muttered before feeling a drop of water roll down my shirt and on my back, making me shiver. Which I'm sure he noticed, kinda hard to see if he didn't since he was hiding a smirk as his hand started glowing pink like last time he dried us off.

"Well now, we can't have you getting sick because of that, now can we?" Ah man. You could just hear the laughter in his voice! He annoyed me so much sometimes. Seriously, the whole emotion thing, it was such a hassle trying not to react to what he said or did around me. I felt the warmth of his hand spread from my head down to the rest of my body, relaxing me considerably.

I also noticed that Bast was purring again. Wonder what Vlad's reaction would be when he heard me call his cat by her new name. Probably complain like a little kid, or pout like one at least.

"There we go, all dry," Vlad smiled down at me before turning towards the door and sighing. He suddenly seemed depressed, which was so not like him. He was more like, always scheming something and having that little smirk on his face. Depressed meant something bad. Probably noticed my lack of emotion. Good, maybe my plan is finally working!

Now, I know I was kinda sick emotionally, due to all the stress my ghost-fighting career caused. But you know it's got to be _really _bad when you get the urge to laugh evilly when a plan is going well. Not even laugh, more like cackle. Maybe I really do need to see a psychologist.

"Well, we might as well got the library now since I have a little more research to do," Vlad muttered, mostly to himself, before tugging me by the wrist again and pulling me along. Well, suppose it could be worse. He could be carrying me over the shoulder again like the last few times.

"Whatever." Like I said. It's a reaction. It's like, as soon as you turn into a teenager, you're embedded with the urge to say whatever all the time. Vlad just scoffed at the word before tugging my wrist and walking towards the door, this time unlocking it from this side instead of phasing us through.

Bast was still on the couch, looking like she was just waiting for me to do something. She also has that catty look on her face. The one where you just know something mischievous is going to happen. Oh yeah!

Man, the others had been right. I _am _clueless.

"Come on Bast," I spoke up while the former cat-Maddie perked her ears up before jumping down from the couch and following after us, falling in step right behind me. I had to struggle again to hide the smirk as Vlad just gaped down at me. Like I was crazy for renaming _his _cat.

"Bast?" he almost whispered. Probably due to shock.

"Maddie just doesn't fit her. Too plain, also too weak for such a conniving little beast." The last part sounded like...like _Vlad_. Not the way it was said, just the tone of voice that was used. I guess that was what shocked him the most, since he was just gaping at me while Bast kept walking forward towards the library, having overheard where Vlad was wanting to go. I almost laughed seeing as how this time it was my turn to pull _him_ along. He didn't even seem to notice since he was so shocked.

"But why Bast?" he almost glared. Almost. Still shell-shocked. I decided to take pity on him just this once.

"Duality," I answered back, my lips starting to twitch into a infinitesimally smirk. At the confused look from Vlad, and shocked seeing as I actually knew that word, I decided to elaborate. "I saw it in a book in your study. It was also something Sam had told me about once. Bast is the Egyptian goddess of duality and fertility. She represents the moon and the dual nature in all woman. Fierce but caring.

"Perfect for a cat who can manage to deal with ghosts on a day-to-day basis and still manage to put them in their place, wouldn't you agree?" It was my victory. He was stunned with my logic, and I think he kinda wanted to move on from Bast's old name too. It brought back a lot of pain and memories. For both of us.

"Fine Daniel. You win. The cat's name is Bast," Vlad muttered while sighing to himself and muttering something about teenagers. I didn't try that heard to listen since my own head was kinda in a spin. I had won. Against Vlad _Masters._ Using nothing but _logic._ Now that was a bit of a shock.

Probably why he was now pulling me again instead of the other way around. That can really get annoying sometimes. Forget sometimes, he's _always _annoying. Damn, more emotion starting to seep through again. The others were right, I really am emotional.

A soft meow brought both of our wandering minds to the white cat sitting in front of the oak door, which I guess, led to the library. Vlad smiled softly, again, weird, before opening the door and tugging me in by the wrist. He than let go and I caught sight of just _who _was in the room.

Skulker. Not to mention the Fright Knight. And oh hey, look, it's the freaking vultures too! Does he enjoy setting my nerves on edge and making me want to beat all four, err, six, of them up. Well...suppose it could be worse. It's not like they're gonna attack me or anything. Probably under Vlad's orders not to in the first way.

"Well well, if it isn't my former pray..." I raised an eyebrow at the _former_ part. Guess I was right, Plasmius really had told them to lay off. Well, if that was the case, no need to worry too much. I mean really, you'd have to have a death wish to go against what Vlad wanted.

"Skulker. Fright Knight. Vultures," I addressed each one of them and nodded my head before going to pick up Bast, who was one step ahead of me. As always. As soon as I stepped behind Vlad to reach her, _not _hide, but simply reach, she already jumped up my side and climbed to my shoulder. Mercifully not using any of her claws. Well, not using them enough to actually hurt anyways.

"Uh..." If only to myself, I will admit I was more tempted to crack up than ever before. All of them were staring at me in shock at my civil manner, and how I was behind Vlad now. When you fight ghosts, you learn to pick up on all kinds of mannerisms. The one I was doing right now, standing behind Plasmius, meant that I wasn't going to pick a fight, and if they wanted one, I wouldn't be the one doing the fighting.

Jazz had kinda understood the motions of ghosts, and Sam, since she knew about animal dominance so well. Tucker and the other ghost hunters were completely and utterly lost. Like I mean, _really _lost.

* * *

Sorry it cuts off! I just wanted to upload what I had so far to show you guys that I hadn't quit the story. Also, you can thank the annoynamas fan reader for this chapter. In his/her words :

_! you haven't updated in 2 months! now i'm really mad! actually just hungry_  
_for more._

_i've been put up to do something drastic..._

_THE GAME!_

_if you don't know what that is i'll explain_

_the game is a game where you can't think about the game unless you lose the_  
_game. so when you think about the game you have to say "i just lost the Game"_  
_which therefore makes everyone around you lose too. now go forth and write_  
_more! !_

_oh and spread the Game to your corner of the globe...tee hee_

I laugh. So freakin hard. So on Friday the 13th, I began this chapter. I am stuck somewhat, so this should tide you guys over until I can get the next part XD


	9. Hope from Within

I for one, meant it to be much longer. But it's 15 pages, so that should be good enough for all you little greedy souls XD Okay. I'm a little late, but you'll forgive me once you read this...maybe. You might just come after me and kill me and than revive my soul so I can give you the next chapter.

I will say this though...the end gets a little freaky and Danny starts descending into madness again. I mean, like, literally falling. He, oh, just read and you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm off to type the next chapter, cause, I'm really getting into this. So I hope you enjoy Chapter Nine! Hope From Within!

It's been a while, so I hope you remember everything. I would re-read the last chapter or so, like I probably should have done...Oh, and I changed the cat's name again...just...just read on. It will all make sense at the end...

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**Chapter Nine – Hope from Within**

Vlad seemed pretty aggravated. At least, if that huge sigh and swipe through his lose bangs meant anything. Right now, he looked like he just pulled an all-night study session on some of Jazz's college psychology books. Trust me, I've done stuff like that. Not. Fun. It was way harder than a night full of nothing but ghost hunting. Way, _way _harder.

"You okay Plasmius?" Skulker tentatively asked, he was still a little freaked out from my earlier display of not wanting to fight and all that. He was probably even more freaked out that I was standing _behind_ Vlad and holding his cat in my arms. I love messing with these guys so much. It was funner than anything else I could think of anyways.

"Just peachy Skulker. Just peachy." Right. I'm sure you are Vlad. I'm also sure the glare you just now sent my way meant nothing at all. He was such a bad liar recently. Wonder if it's because he has no reason to lie anymore, or because his mind is just as stretched to the breaking point as mine is.

The only difference between our minds, was that mine had already snapped.

"Than...is there a reason that you called us here?" Skulker asked again. He seemed to be the spokes-ghost for the rest of them. Made sense. Skulker always did have that _in-control_ kinda vibe going on. He hated being shown up by any and everyone. Maybe that's why he and Technus always had that friendly rivalry going on between them.

It had all started off because Technus had been furious that there was someone knew more than him on certain pieces of technology. Like Skulker's weapons systems. And Skulker had always been pissed that Technus kept finding more and more ways to make him feel stupid about his own tech and gear. The two almost ended up strangling each other when they were working _together_. It was all kinda stupid and funny at the same time.

The two never really _fought _each other though. Just yelled insults and threw witty banter back and forth. Well...witty for them I guess. Nothing like the amazing stuff I was capable of. I guess it was because Technus was the one to do repairs on Skulker and his suit all the time, so they had to have some level of trust and friendship between them. Not that you could tell they were really friends just by looking at them.

Sam had once said the that the phrase '_with friends like mine, who needs enemies?_' applied to those two perfectly. Me and Tucker had to agree.

"Yes," Vlad smirked, answering Skulker's earlier question, before walking over to the shelves behind us. Again, it was hilarious to see someone besides me being stumped by Vlad's answers for once. And judging by all five of their expressions, they were really stumped. Almost made me laugh. Almost. Still trying to suppress any and all emotion so as to get Vlad to hate me. Hm... I wonder if I have to suppress _all _emotion.

"Perhaps Vlad is simply worried that you wouldn't be able to comprehend any of his plans. He's probably learned his lesson after the first few times you screwed them all up. Like getting the wrong thing, fighting the wrong ghost, or losing to a _14-year-old_ child who could barely even use newly-acquired ghost-powers. I have to say, Vlad's making a smart choice by keeping you all in the dark."

God... I was torn between just falling over in the floor and cracking up from their expressions and hitting myself in the face at the sheer _smug _that layered my voice. It certainly caught all of their attention though, even Vlad to some extent. And by that I mean he was glaring at the books in front of him again.

Skulker on the other hand had the perfect response. He had huge, wide eyes and was currently slack-jawed. I mean, really slack-jawed. It was seriously loose and just hanging open, you could even see his tongue! The rest of his body was just kinda limp, like he had been so shocked he didn't even bother using any more effort to try and stand straight.

The Fright Knight's reaction wasn't as hilarious as Skulker's. It was still kinda funny though. He's usually this perfect knight and always intimidating. Now he was slouched as well and was also staring at me with wide and shocked eyes. Even his flame cape had seemed to lose a little fire. Hm, wonder if it changed with his mood...

And the vultures, well, they had just stopped hovering all together and were now sitting shock-still on the floor. And trust me, they _never _stop moving. That's why it was such a pain when I had to catch them with the thermos. Bast was doing something between a purr and a snicker. Again, you know it's bad when you want to start cackling in front of your enemies due to their misfortune.

God, I keep sounding more and more like Vlad and Clockwork. The cackling though...it did kinda sound like fun. Wonder how shocked they'd be if I actually did cackle. With that amazing and fun-sounding thought, Fright finally decided to be the one to speak up. I wonder if he had guessed what I was thinking of doing, since it went along the lines of being scary and all. And he was the ghost of Halloween and all that. Hm...it certainly deserves some thought.

"Well...that was...unexpected," Fright tentatively spoke up, as if afraid to break the silence that had fallen after my Vlad-like comment and inner cackle. Skulker just nodded in agreement while Vlad muttered under his breath before looking at the book titles on the shelves next to him. The vultures just continued to sit and stare, like they had been shocked to their death...err, what was left of death anyways.

I have to admit, if only to myself, I was very, _very_ proud. Screw the down side of sounding like Vlad, it was just so much fun to stump these guys. And to cause them to question everything they had ever known or thought about the half-ghost they had called Danny Phantom.

Very fun indeed.

"Indeed it was," Vlad muttered loud enough for the rest of us to hear. Again, tempted to laugh. This time it was because his comment had coincided with my thoughts of fun, even though he had be originally answering Fright's comment of my Vlad-state being unexpected.

Speaking, or well, thinking of the fruitloop, he was now done looking through the last shelf and was now trailing over to the far side of the library, causing us to follow him like faithful servants. The others followed him out of habit I guess, I just followed because I had nothing better to do. Bast was back up on my shoulders and purring softly. She also seemed a little irritated at something.

No clue why. I mean, there wasn't much that could be irritating her right now. But thinking on it, it could be her name I guess. Bast _seemed_ good, but it also seemed kinda...off. Ya know? Like... The whole goddess part sounded right. But Bast made her seem like some old woman who had all the answers to everything. Like Pandora. Former-cat-Maddie/Bast was more...younger. Like... She was more like one of us. Me, Sam, Tucker, and Phantom.

Wait...Phantom? What...

"Now, the reason I called you all here, minus Daniel, is because I have a job for you," Vlad began. He was taking large stacks of books off the shelves and was starting to get quite a big pile stacked up. He kinda reminded me of the Ghostwriter what with all the books he was carrying. The weird thing was, all of the books had to do with Psychology or something like it. I mean, a lot of them I recognized from Jazz's own personal collection, and her college books.

Just what was that fruitloop plotting this time...

"And that would be..." Skulker trailed off, trying to tactfully probe Plasmius for some information. Hah! Good luck on that front buddy, I'd been trying that trick for almost three years, and it _never_ worked. Ever. Vlad only gave you information when he wanted to give it to you. He never let anything about his plans slip out on accident. Only on purpose. He was a mastermind at planning and chaos, that was one thing I was certain of.

"That would be...I forgot," Vlad trailed off while looking at the ceiling thoughtfully but also kinda half-there, as if he was trying to actually remember. I almost broke my vow of no emotion because I was so freaking close to cracking up. I was seriously breaking ribs trying _not_ to laugh at what he had just done. The others behind me looked shocked, scared, and thoroughly freaked out. It was so hilarious!

"Eh...Boss... Maybe you should take a few days off," the vulture leader mumbled, the other two nodding in agreement, as if afraid to incur Vlad's wrath. That just made the whole thing even funnier.

"No need. It'll come back to me...eventually," Vlad blew a few of his bangs out of the way before reaching for three more books, while still standing on the small step ladder. Again, I was tempted to laugh. Really, he's always been this calm, cool, and collected billionaire of a guy. And the one time I need to be emotionless, he starts being hilarious!

That's so not fair Clockwork... Yeah buddy, I know you're up listening to all this! I also know you're up to something in that little tower/room thing of yours!

Can Clockwork even read thoughts... Or does he have no clue why I'm scowling to myself. Well, he does seem to be able to read people's emotions pretty well. I mean, he's had a few thousand or so years of practice. Ugh, no emotion Fenton. Man, this is getting to be pretty freaking annoying.

When Vlad had finally collected enough books to obscure his whole face and half his chest, I decided to take pity on him and grab a few off the top of his pile. Just enough for him to walk and see where he was going at the same time without falling and breaking something. Vlad merely sent me a small smile of thanks, which surprised me. He was usually more stubborn and hard headed than I was!

I guess Vlad decided he had finally collected enough books because he soon stepped down off the ladder and led the way to a wooden table in the back of the library while me and the others followed him. Bast, again, doesn't sound right, was trailing us and sending sneaky looks at everyone. It was as if she had a bunch of pranks up her sleeve, er, paw. Don't ask me how a cat can look sneaky. They just can. And it's freaky. _Especially_ her.

Than again...nothing is really ever that freaky after you become a half-ghost teenager who uses his powers to be a superhero. Except that one time I visited Clockwork's lair/tower/chambers. I mean, I could have been wrong, but I could have _sworn_ that I saw a Hannah Montana clock on the wall before vanishing. But...trying to understand the Master of Time was like trying to get my Dad to give up ghost-hunting or Sam to eat meat. A lost cause.

"Plasmius...is there a reason you and the ghost-child are carrying a bunch of books?" Skulker's expression was priceless. I can't even describe it, it's just one of those expressions that makes you want to crack up in laughter. Darn it! Quit experiencing emotion brain!

"Yes. But I don't really feel like sharing. How about you, Little Badger?" I resisted the urge to wince when I heard him call me that in front of the others. I saw snickering from the vultures and Skulker looked like he was mouthing the words in a mix of shock and humor. Fright Knight was the only one who looked sympathetic at the nickname.

God bless him. Or...his lost soul at least.

"No, not really. I may not know what you're up too either, but I hardly expect any of us to understand what goes on in your mind Plasmius. It's like trying to understand quantum physics," I smirked back. Problem was, it wasn't a smirk smirk, it was a ha-ha-I'm-better-than-all-of-you smirk. Or a better description would be a Vlad smirk. Ick. I wanted to shiver and take a burning and scarring shower now. Rinse the ick off.

The only thing that made up for it was the shocked expressions of them seeing me and Vlad were of the same opinion and mind for once. I mean, they had only seen us at each others throats before, so this was rather bizarre for them. And probably every other ghost of the Ghost Zone. The temptation to wash off the Vlad germs that were invading my brain was great, but, maybe later. This was just too much fun right now.

"Well...that was unexpected," one of the vultures muttered while he and the other wo landed on the backs of nearby chairs at the table me and Vlad set the books down on. Those vultures were really good at stating the obvious apparently. I was just glad that Vlad actually had a table back here, I mean, these things were _heavy_. Jazz would love them, but I'm not her. Why was Vlad reading these things anyways?

A sudden, and loud, bang brought my attention to Skulker, who was cursing under his breath as he tried to get up from the floor. Best as I can guess, he was going to sit down in a chair and it, the chair, had suddenly pulled back and caused him to fall. What I'm wondering is, who would be crazy enough, or bored enough, to actually do it.

I almost busted a gut trying to contain my laughter when I saw Bast walking away from the chair and meowing, bringing all attention to her. She was so _smug_. Like, five times what me and Vlad were capable of.

"Plasmius, you're cat is evil," Skulker muttered while glaring at the prancing and snickering feline, yes, snickering. Don't ask me how, but she was actually snickering. "She's a demon incarnated into animal flesh and bone."

"Or she's lived around ghosts so long she's learned how to take care of herself," I shot back, doing another evil smirk as Bast, still not right, jumped up on the table and started weaving around the books. She looked as if she was tempted to knock them over, but I guess she knew that Vlad needed them cause she just ended up sending a glare towards Skulker before sitting down in front of me.

"Yeah, by causing nothing but chaos," Skulker muttered back. He looked bitter and was rubbing his back as the vultures started snickering to themselves, the chairs actually moving backwards from the force of their laughter. I merely quirked an eyebrow while thinking about the words Skulker had said. Chaos, huh... Interesting.

"Chaos...discord. The two calling cards of a certain Greek goddess if last I remember," I muttered while petting former-Bast and smirking again before raising my eyes to Vlad. "Hey Vlad, how do you think Eris sounds for a cat?" If Vlad was surprised by the question he hid it pretty well.

"Better than Bast I suppose," Vlad muttered back, sitting down and cracking open a book. He looked like he was pretty distracted, but that was better for me. Meant that I could get away with most anything. Like naming the cat Eris. Ah...much better.

"What are you talking about, if I may ask?" Ya know, the Fright Knight was a pretty okay ghost. Polite for sure. At least, when he wasn't beating you within an inch of your life. Or afterlife as was most cases.

"Maddie was an awful name for _this _cat, so I decided to rename her. I tried Bast, but it just didn't seem to fit. Eris though... Chaos and discord. Perfect, don't you think, Skulker?" I directed the question and an evil smirk at Skulker, who had just managed to get up from the floor, his metal suit being pretty heavy to move around in and all.

"Wonderful," Skulker muttered while sitting down finally. I could just tell he was tempted to grab one of his guns and shoot both me and Eris. He was holding back though, guess it was because if he did Plasmius would kill him before he could touch us. For once, I was pretty glad about hanging around Vlad.

Scratch that. Glad is an emotion. No emotions except contempt and snarky remarks that put people down. Let's see how you deal with _this _Little Badger Plasmius. Internally sighing at my comments I almost didn't notice Skulker. Almost. He was like...not Skulker.

I don't know how to explain it. He was just kinda...off. Like he was carrying a huge weight around on his shoulders. I tried to think back to the last time we fought. Kinda run-of-the-mill, but nothing totally off. He was a little irritated about his fight with Ember, ew, but other than that... Nothing much was going on with the hunter. Same old, same old, except... Oh...

"She felt the same you know," I muttered, picking up one of the books I had recognized. Vlad was watching me out of the corner of his eye, I could just tell. You learn to pay attention to when others look at you when you're as paranoid as me. Came with being attacked by ghosts and my parents every single day. I did another inner cackle before flipping towards the section on depersonalization. Let Vlad make of that what he will.

"What are you talking about whelp?" Skulker growled out. Yup, definitely carrying a pretty great weight around, I mean, he didn't even sound that angry when he growled. He also seemed kinda...closed in on himself. Like he was trying to hide himself from everyone. You wouldn't notice it if you hadn't known him that long. But after two years of fighting the guy, it was kinda easy to tell how he was suffering.

"Sam. You miss her too, don't you? Although you might miss her more than I do," I spoke back, flipping a page and reading about emotion suppression. Interesting. Maybe I picked up more things around Jazz than I realized. Like all the psycho-babble about suppressing feelings and memories and all that.

"What are you talking about whelp?" Denial. Stage one. Wonder if he follows all the stages in order...

"The girl who always dressed in black and hung around with me and Tucker. Samantha Manson. You liked her. A lot. I could see it after a few months. Especially since after a while you tried to leave her out of the fights as much as you could. You even convinced Technus to lay off of her, and a few of the other rabble ghosts."

"Are you insane ghost-child?" Skulker yelled out, going on yelling and cursing and telling me just how stupid I was acting if I actually thought he had the hots for a human who was my best friend. Amusing part, he was the one who said hots, not me. Kinda obvious after he said that. Even Vlad was holding back his own laughter after that. Fright was staring out the window respectively, deciding it wasn't his place to interfere.

Bless him. He was a good knight. The vultures on the other hand...they were total gossip-hounds, you could see them listening to every word Skulker was yelling about Sam and me and all that. So tempting to laugh at this point. What was after stage one now... Oh yeah!

Stage two. Anger.

"I mean, _why_ in the **seven hells** would I fall for _**her**_?" Wow. Anger and denial both at the same time. Have to admit, that was pretty cool.

"Because you loved her and would do almost anything to make sure she didn't get hurt. As for why you would fall for her. Beats me. I mean, yeah, she's smart and pretty. But she's also kinda out there," I stopped talking as Skulker started yelling again, this time saying I was an idiot for not seeing how amazing she was.

Wow...and others thought _I _was clueless. Maybe that's why Sam liked him so much. The dorky clueless type. I mean, we did have a small thing a year ago, but we ended it after one date. We knew it wasn't meant to be. We were just meant to be friends, that was it.

Ugh, thinking about all this is depressing. I decided to concentrate on watching Skulker. It was way more amusing. He was still spewing insults at me and compliments at Sam. Along the way I think he passed the stage of bargaining. Cursing out God or some other deity and than yelling that he would get her back. That part was kinda confusing but really amusing.

"I WILL GET HER BACK ONE DAY!" Yeah. That was stage three in his own freaky ghost-hunter way. I mean, he can't be expected to follow every stage perfectly.

"Skulker. You loved her. She's gone," my voice _almost_ cracked on the word gone, but I managed to hide it to where no one but someone like Vlad or Fright would notice. Thankfully Fright was deciding to ignore the conversation and Vlad was in his own little psychology world. "Let it out man, let it out."

After that it was like the floodgates opened, Skulker was whining, crying, and anything else that went with the stage of depression. Gotta admit, it was kinda funny. Hm...wonder if I want through those stages. I mean... I still haven't really accepted that they're...not here...

"She's really gone...isn't she..." Skulker asked in a dead voice after a few more minutes of his depression. His head was leaning against his arms, which were folded and resting on top of the table. Well, his voice was deader than usual anyways. Hey, another dead pun. Wonder how many of those I've used today...

"Yes Skulker. She's gone," I mumbled back, flipping a few pages in the book till I got a part about the stages of loss. Oh very nice irony Clockwork. I scanned the list. Denial. Anger. Bargain. Depression. And finally, acceptance.

"Congratulations my old friend, you have gone through all five stages of grief and loss," Vlad finally spoke up, suppressing the urge to grin. Jerk. Have to admit though, I was tempted to at least smirk. I mean, it took almost two years to get the hunk of metal to finally admit that he loved Sam. It took me a week to get the confession from Sam.

Of course she threatened that if I ever repeated any of it she would personally castrate me herself... Yeah. I really didn't want to find out if she was kidding or not. Besides, knowing Sam, she really wasn't.

"I was telling the truth though. She really did love you," I spoke softly, making eye contact so he knew I was telling the truth. Hey, if she wasn't here, she couldn't actually due any harm to me! Yay for loopholes! And it would have definitely been worth the pain since Skulker was now blushing a few colorful shades. How he could blush as a ghost I have no idea, but he could and he did. It was awesome.

I bet Technus had something to do with that. Skulker and his blushing and all. The techno-ghost freak loved messing with Skulker's battle suit, and was a major pervert. So I could see him doing something like being able to make the hunk of metal actually blush. Note to self, thank the techno-ghost next time I see him.

"It's not that funny Plasmius," Skulker muttered under his breath while looking away. Across from him Vlad was snickering behind his book while scribbling notes on a small notepad he had next to him. Why did what Skulker say sound familiar now...

_If I wasn't blushing before I certainly was now. Stupid fruitloop and his laughter. "Yeah yeah Vlad...Laugh it up fruitloop. Laugh it up..." If I was hoping to get him to be quiet with that lame line, than I was wrong. Very wrong. The only difference is that now if he was trying to stifle his laughter he wasn't doing that good a job at it. I mean...who laughs that much? Does he not see why I call him a fruitloop?_

Oh yeah...

"I share your sentiments my friend," I muttered while lightly glaring at Vlad. Fruitloop. Just like the flashback, Vlad kept laughing. More than ever I was tempted to blast him. Just a small shock is all, it wouldn't hurt...much...

Damn. Now I'm even sounding like the jerky older self that I hate. A low purr brought my wondering attention to Eris, who looked as if she knew what was going on in my mind. Hm, maybe this cat wasn't so bad after all. Especially since she wasn't named Maddie anymore. Cue the shudder.

I was about to tease Skulker about Sam again, if for nothing but a lack of anything better to do, when Fright finally decided to speak up. Since the whole Skulker/Sam drama was finally over with and all.

"Sir Plasmius, is there truly a reason for us convening here today?" Why is it that lately, when Fright talks, I actually understand him. Like, used to, I couldn't understand a word he said. At all. But now... It was like second nature. Trust me, the mumbo jumbo he spoke in used to be like a foreign language to me that made no sense.

Just ask Lancer and all the failed tests on medieval history.

"Yes, it's nothing much though, really," Vlad smirked. I resisted the urge to gulp in fear when I remembered that this smirk wasn't meant for me. Thank God. I mean, those smirks were _very _familiar to me. "I just have a few simple jobs in mind for the five of you."

"I know that smirk of yours Plasmius," Skulker muttered under his breath, trying not to freak out. What a smart robot. If he knew that smirk as well as I did, than he knew what was in store for him.

"You know what, I actually feel sorry for all of you right now," I muttered while hiding my own smirk and scratching behind Eris' ears. I think my empathy and soft voice is what_ really _scared the ectoplasm out of them. Vlad just chuckled lightly before speaking again.

"It's nothing that bad. Well...not really. Possibly," Vlad trailed off and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. Great going Vlad. You just freaked out your lackeys even more than before! I swear...he get's some kind of sick amusement and pleasure out of scaring people half to death. Well...scaring us to the other half of our death. Wait, that phrase only works on me and him really. Hm, what would be the right witty phrase to use on a full ghost...

"Maybe it would be scare them to death again... No...too childish," I muttered under my breath, forgetting about the ghost hearing that they all possessed. But really, it was just too tempting a mystery! I mean, it was driving me nuts. What would it be? "Maybe scare them to oblivion. Yeah... I'm going to have to go with scare them to oblivion."

I nodded my head in confirmation of my choice before looking up from my book, the others were staring at me while Vlad was just shaking his head and reading another book. "You shouldn't be concentrating on me so much as your employer who can make those jobs of his very nasty."

The reaction was instantaneous. They started shivering and freaking out again. The vultures were actually squawking softly and having feathers fall off of them. Fright was standing straight and perfect-like, but there was also the minute tremor running through him. Ah, good old fear. And here I thought I couldn't scare anyone! How sweet. After my inner cackle and watching the others freak out some more, I sneaked a look over at Vlad. He looked...weird.

Not weird weird, but different weird. Like he was holding something back. He looked calm but he also looked kinda hesitant to say anything else about his jobs for the others. He looked...reluctant...

Oh...

"Hey Vlad, would it be alright if I explore the mansion a bit?" I asked, almost cringing when I realized my voice had sounded emotionless without me even trying to make it that way. Well...at least this brilliant plan of mine was working. To an extent...

"Wonderful idea Little Badger! Why don't you and...Eris," the hesitation at saying the cat's new name made me cackle on the inside. I really am getting worse, "go and explore the mansion and grounds for a little while. I'll come and get you when it's time for lunch."

"Kay," I replied before shutting my book and standing up from the table. Eris seemed to sense what I wanted since she quickly jumped into my arms and snuggled in before I got an idea. This was gonna be fun. "Hey vultures, remember when you attacked me at the library and knocked all those books on top of me?"

Vlad seemed surprised at the news while the vultures looked nervous at the subject being brought up in front of the evil that is Vlad. Eris just seemed to share the chaos I had in mind since she slinked out of my arms and jumped down on the floor, heading towards a tipping bookshelf.

See, back when the vultures were laughing and cawing and all that at Skulker's misfortune, they had ended up scooting their chairs back. Far enough back to be in the path of a very large bookcase. One filled with very heavy books. A bookcase that was tipping on it's side due to what I guess was old age. It wouldn't take much to knock it over from what I guessed. Just a small shove or tip.

Or a very evil cat.

"Yeah..." one of them said hesitantly, like they weren't sure why I was bringing it up in the first place. I smirked before very gently tapping the desk in front of me, Eris taking the cue in stride and bumping against the shelves. And as I had guessed, it fell over. Quickly and loudly. The bookcase immediately fell forward, the books all falling and hitting the vultures, knocking them off the chairs they had been on. "It doesn't feel very good, does it?"

A lone book slid across the floor and landed in front of my feet. Me and the others could all see the thickly embossed words on the cover. _Revenge for Dummies. _I couldn't help it. I cackled. Not as much as Vlad or some other insane ghosts I could mention, but just enough to get my point across. Certainly scared all of them. Well, the vultures and Skulker at least. They were looking at me like I was the Behemoth or something!

"Come on, Eris," I muttered softly once my cackling had died down. I than turned and started walking away, my ghost hearing catching the soft sounds of Eris padding up from behind me before stopping in front of me and purring. Picking her up she quickly climbed onto my shoulders, her preferred place of resting, before meowing and purring some more.

"What happened to him..." Skulker muttered, mostly to himself. Guess he forgot that halfas have just as great hearing as any other ghost. Even in our human forms. I heard Vlad sigh, and it sounded pretty heavy. Like he was really suffering from something. And whatever it was, it sounded pretty bad.

"He's been broken," Vlad muttered softly. Sadly. Well, can't have him thinking something that isn't true, now can we? That would be wrong of the hero, now wouldn't it?

"Technically, I'm not broken," I glanced back at the others, "Just shattered." The urge to let out a bitter smirk had never been so great. I actually think the smirk slipped a little. The vultures were still struggling to get up but stood still at what I had said. Skulker was slack-jawed again. Fright looked sad, as if he knew the sorrow I was going through. And Vlad...

Vlad looked completely and absolutely desolate. Like I had just killed any and all hope for him. Well...maybe this would finally knock some sense into him and save him from what was coming. Save him from dying while trying to help _fix _me. Save him from myself.

A soft, quite, and tentative purr brought my attention back to a sad-looking Eris. I let myself smile softly before walking out of the library. One small smile wouldn't completely ruin things I suppose. Now, what to do in a mansion that I'm allowed free reign in...

"To the study?" I questioned the cat. I questioned. The cat. I. Questioned. The. Cat. That's when you know it's gotten bad. What's worse, I didn't really care all that much. I did let her jump out of my arms as she led me to the study however. I could trust Eris to know where she was going, she knew this mansion from back to front by now. I mean, she's lived here long enough to know her way around.

So here I was, Danny Fenton/Phantom, half-ghost super-powered teenager who had been fighting ghosts for close to three years. And I was stuck in a mansion filled with the latest and greatest technology and a ghost lab, and the best I can think to do is go mess around in Vlad's study. That's really...pathetic. I mean, Tucker would just kill to have one day in here. I got...well...let's see. How long would it take me to lose absolutely all hope and for Vlad to rip out my humanity.

Not long if what I was guessing was right. Vlad was looking through all of those books for a reason. He was trying to see what was wrong with me. He would see the depersonalization and the emotion suppression for sure. After that he would reason that my ghost half was holding in all my rage and sorrow of the accident.

It wasn't so far a jump for him to do something like that. He knew just how well our ghost sides could hold anger, rage, sorrow, and depression. How they could hold grudges... I was young though. Or so he thought anyways. He still believed me to be nothing more than a child. And children don't hold rage and hate when things like this happened. They hold sorrow and depression.

So because of my sorrow and depression, he'll create the ghost gauntlets. He'll put me under anesthesia, find a way to reason with me and get me to agree with his views. And me, being an idiot and depressed and willing to just get rid of all the pain, would fall for it. I'd fall for anything that would come out of his mouth. I would beg and plead and agree to have my ghost-half ripped out of me. To become normal for once. And Vlad, being who he was, would do anything to help me. Even if it ended up hurting me in the end.

So he would rip out my ghost-half. And after that... I can only guess why my ghost-half would tear out Vlad's as well. I never understood it. And Clockwork never explained. Maybe it was where my ghost-self could sense the pure power Vlad wielded. And hey, maybe that was just it. My ghost-half was pissed. It was full of what Vlad thought was sorrow.

It wasn't though. It was full of anger, rage, hate at what had happened. Not being able to stop it. My ghost-half would be pissed that it was ripped from it's human-half. I mean, really pissed. Cue the ripping out of Vlad's humanity and fusing of the two ghost-halves and that's it. That's when Dan will come into form.

One difference though. This Dan will start out two years older. This Dan will have access to ice powers and a stronger knowledge of the ghostly wail, which he didn't have till twenty-four last time. Ghostly-wail, ice powers, not to mention all of Vlad's powers. And I know for a fact he has power over electricity. Problem was I didn't know the extent.

Knowing Vlad though, it was pretty strong. And if I tried, I could find out the full extent and use of his powers, just like how he found out mine. But that was just it, wasn't it? I didn't want to find out. I didn't care. But Dan...

Dan loved power. He loved to watch others get hurt, to see others in pain. And why shouldn't he? He was formed out of two ghosts who were filled with nothing but rage, hatred, sorrow and one with a twenty-year-old grudge. One that could never be fulfilled.

Dan was a menace. And this time, not even Val would be around to keep him at bay. And so Val's dad wouldn't figure anything out about the ghost or ghost technology. He wouldn't be able to build the town shield to keep Dan out. Amity Park would be destroyed the second that Dan was formed. Heh.

Now I see why mom and dad wanted the Wisconsin Ghost and Danny Phantom destroyed. We were too powerful. Too destructive if we chose to be. That's why they wanted me and Vlad destroyed. If we ever turned to true evil, if we never did anything but destroy because we wanted too...

_There'd be nothing anyone could do_. For once, I didn't know if that was my own mind talking or that stupid voice. Another meow brought my attention to Eris, who was sitting in front of the study door and waiting for me to open it. How long was I lost in my thoughts? It's like, a ten-minute walk from here to the library! How had that inner monologue even started.

"Let's see. Something about Dan being stronger, Dan forming...oh yeah, how long would it take Dan to form..." It was a good thought/question. Eris hopped on my shoulders while I phased us through the door out of habit. I was used to doors being locked around this place. The fruitloop being as paranoid as I was.

"Hm...last time I lost someone close to me was when I was seven. And according to Jazz, that's when emotions and their mindset stabilize and lock into place. Whatever that means," I muttered to myself while walking around the room slowly and looking at all the book shelves. It was still toasty in the room from where the ecto-fire Vlad had created to destroy the phone was still going strong. "Let's see... It took a good week for the loss to hit me."

I started doing the math in my head. Not including the two weeks it took me to get to Vlad's, and the three days I had slept and rested from my fever, it had been... Hm, I think two days. This made the third. So, I had four whole days before the stages of loss hit me. After that, I would skip step five and stay in state four permanently.

Last time I only got out of the depression state because that was when I met Sam and Tucker. Friends who would be with me for life, or so I had thought. This time, no one would be there to help me get out. Not even Vlad, as great as he had been, would be able to get me out of the depression I would spiral into. Nor any other ghost or human for that matter. Actually, now that I think about it, there's no humans left that I actually know.

"Okay Eris, I got four days before I turn into an emotional wreck. Than after that, I got about two days before Vlad decides to rip my ghost-half out. So... We need ideas to get Vlad to hate me. I think the emotion thing is working so far. A few more days of that and he'll be pretty irritated at me.

"I know I won't be able to get him to completely hate and despise me, but I might be able to get him to be prepared for when I turn..." A meow full of skepticism and disbelief was all that met my ears.

"I know it's a dumb plan! It's all I got though..." I muttered before looking at the books again, a shelf of glowing ones capturing my eyes. Wow... A shelf full of books from the ghost zone. Dan would just kill to get a hold of these things. Heck, he'd kill just for fun...

"The Forming of New Ghosts..." There, in glowing black and purple and large leather-bounded material, was a book that just might be my last hope. I grabbed the book and started flipping through it as fast as Jazz would flip through a psychology book. Trust me, it was pretty fast.

"Ghosts form by their old mortal bodies...takes close to two weeks to form depending on way of death...young tend to form faster than old..." Huh, wonder if that explained why my ghost-half formed right away after getting blasted by the portal while it took Vlad almost two years in the hospital to get his. I just thought it was where he didn't get as much ecto-energy hitting him or something. "Docile until angered...graves...

"Eris! This is it! This means my family can come back!" I glanced down at Eris who looked hesitant and worried. Don't know why she was or how she could look worried, but I just shook it off. I mean, she was probably just worried I would leave without telling Vlad or something. Which she was right about.

"Sorry Eris, but I got no choice in this matter. This could be my last chance...my _only _chance to stop the future from happening again. I managed to stop it last time it happened, and now I have to try and stop it again. Only last time..."

"_You beat me? Ha! Yes, with the help of an all-powerful ghost of time and your pathetic little friends. You have neither of them now. No friends. No family. No Clockwork. You're all alone." I looked back into the mirror. Now along with my eyes glowing red my hair had started flickering into the color white before being turned into flames._

"Damn it Dan! Stay out of my head!" I yelled to nothing but thin air. Eris might have been right to look concerned for me. Now...how to get to Amity Park quickly. I mean, it'd already been _over_ two weeks! What if I missed them! I opened the book again and scanned the passages. "New ghosts are able to quickly make their way to the Ghost Zone due to graveyards being a place full of natural ghost portals.

"Well...that makes it slightly harder. Harder, but doable!" I mean, even if they do see a portal, they won't go in it. Sam and Tucker and Jazz would finally be able to tell all the others I was Danny Phantom, since they were ghosts too and all. There would be no more secrets or sneaking out or anything! Mom and Dad could finally be proud of me and everything would work out fine!

Hm, I wonder if they'll finally drop all of their ghost-hunting now that they're actually, you know, ghosts. Than again, Skulker still hunted and all, so maybe it wouldn't be too strange for them to keep it up. I mean, every ghost has an obsession or crazy hobby that they're drawn too. Case in point, the Box Ghost. Plus, ghost-hunting was their obsession from when they were human! Yeesh, I feel kinda bad for the Ghost Zone now...

The main point was, that they would know to stay put and wait in the graveyard while I went and found them! Even if a portal opened or they were attacked by the Guys-in-White or something, it would all work out! They could just evade the guns and stay away from any natural portals! I mean, it was simple!

Okay, so maybe it would be a little hard, but it would all be worth it if it worked. I mean, if I saw my family and friends again, I wouldn't actually turn evil. I wouldn't have really lost them in the end, so I wouldn't go through the stages of loss and grief and everything! It was the perfect plan!

"Okay, so now... I need a plan to get there..." I glanced over at Eris, who looked nervous at what I was thinking. Heh. Now why would she be so nervous unless she knew I had a good plan to get to Amity Park. I mean, it's not like I could really break into Vlad's portal or even his lab, his locks were way too secure for that. And I couldn't really fly to Amity without Vlad sensing me going ghost and flying away from the mansion.

He would just sense me and than track me down as a ghost himself in less than a second. Heck, I probably wouldn't even get off the mansion lawn before he found and tracked me down. He was that good at detecting ghosts. I might not have even gotten in the air!

So I had to use flying as my way out, but I also had to suppress my ghost half to where Vlad wouldn't be able to sense it... And there was no way I could actually do that. I still wasn't too sure on how _I _could detect ghosts, let alone keep others from detecting me. I mean, Frostbite had been pretty vague and all about that particular power of mine. I almost deflated in defeat at flying to Amity when I realized something.

Eris was nervous.

The only reason she would be nervous was if she thought I had a plan. A good and solid plan too. Trust me, that cat was smart. She knew a lot about Vlad, ghosts and half-ghosts, so she probably knew I would need to have a plan to suppress my ghost side and all it's powers. One that would actually work. One where I could escape as a ghost. One to suppress my ghost side...

"The necklace," I uttered the words before they even fully registered in my mind, but it got the desired effect. Eris blanching at the words. Perfect. That was my way out than. After yesterday, or, uh...two or three days ago really... After...the freak out and memory loss incident, yeah, that sounds good.

Anyways, after _that_ incident, Vlad probably really _does_ have that stupid twenty-code locking system up again. So I can't really get one from his lab, secret or otherwise. He'd be on to me faster than Jazz when I lied about doing my homework. Which, for reference, is pretty darn fast. I looked down at Eris to see she was now on the couch and was looking pretty darn smug as she saw my face fall again.

"Unless...if you knew the lab was really locked down to where not even a spot of dust could get in, you wouldn't have looked so worried about me escaping earlier... So Eris...what were you...thinking..." I trailed off as I finally realized it. Three days ago when I was trying to run away from Vlad and the accident...

_Right. Up. Left. Dodge. Intangible. Dang, there goes the stupid necklace thing. Oh well, eek, dodge! Invisible. Run. Fly faster. Left. Up. Down! Down! Right. Right. Down. Swerve. Up. Way up. Speed dive. Invisible. Right._

I had dropped the necklace when I had last went intangible on the lawn! So it was still there! Near the pool...I think... Unless some bird or something else got to it first. "Well well Eris, I thank you for your help. Now, stay here." I quickly ran from Eris before she could get up and chase me and than phased out of the study, leaving Eris locked in.

Hopefully she wouldn't be too mad at me, and forgive me when I actually came back. If I came back. I mean, Vlad would find her eventually, he uses the study practically three times a day. In fact, he'll probably go in there after he's done in the library.

Speaking of which, I quieted my frantic running as I passed the library, carefully avoiding Vlad and the others suspicion. Now, I just had to run down these flight of stairs, whoa...can the fruitloop do anything without it being extravagant. I mean really, white and black marble stairs with plush maroon carpeting? And this wasn't even the main staircase! It was the side staircase that led towards the kitchens! It was hardly ever used!

Let's see. He's proper and fussy about his appearance. He's always immaculate. He actually goes to a hairdresser, trust me, I've seen his schedule once before. He cooks, better than my mom anyways. He wore/wears an _apron_. One that has _pink _writing. He knows how to decorate a house and fill it with extravagant things. Like, fill it to the max but still make it look...comfortable. A look but don't touch thing. Plus all his attacks are a pink or whatever.

Wow...and he still chased after my mom all those times? He's either really _really_ far back in that closet of his, or he's just as clueless as me and Skulker combined. Which, I can't see happening. Vlad Masters, is never clueless. So... That only left one option to all the...ugh...why am I thinking about this now?

I shook my head at the ways of the fruitloop as I skidded around another corner, I mean really, he was _insane_. And you just can't help or understand an insane person... Crap, I was supposed to have turned right at that last hallway. The one with the picture of the packers after their first win. Ugh... "Stupid fruitloop and his stupid maze-like mansion, how big is this place anyways?"

Calm down Fenton, deep, calming breaths, just like Jazz taught you. All you have to do is just try and get outside of this house of a maze and search for the stupid necklace. It couldn't be _that_ hard, I mean, it wasn't like the backyard was as big as his mansion or something...

"Darn you Vlad, ya stupid fruitloop," I hissed under my breath as I skidded to a halt. I had finally found the back-door, only to see that the backyard was pretty freaking huge. It shouldn't even be called backyard, more like a forest! Which meant I was pretty much doomed at trying to find the necklace.

I mean, there had to be thousands of places that stupid necklace was, and it had even fallen when I was flying in mid-air. At my top speed! And it still could have been carried off! Heck, Vlad himself might have even come out here and taken it back to his lab or something! Maybe breaking into the lab wouldn't be such a bad idea after all...

My body automatically turned around and was about to go back inside when I heard a small noise. It was usually something I'd ignore since it was that small, but this time, something was telling me to follow it. And honestly, after being a ghost-hunting teen that had enemies around every corner that loved to attack you for almost three years, you learn to listen to your instincts. And believe them.

Following the general direction of the noise turned out to be pretty tough. It was that small a noise. I mean, I wasn't even sure how I had heard it in the first place. My feet started running without thinking, as if running towards something important. A few hundred yards of running later and I had to fight to keep my balance as I had immediately stopped dead in my tracks.

Hey, another pun!

It was either stop, or step on the necklace which was right in front of me. Hm... Suspicious. "I'm on to you Clockwork. I know you're watching this too," I muttered softly. I flinched as I could have sworn I heard something. A fading ghostly chuckle or something like it...oh wait...that was just the wind. Stupid Master of Time, popping up whenever he wanted...scaring me to the other half of my death.

Do you know how many times he's just popped up and said Boo. Just because he said he was bored? I mean, it was funny the first few times, but two-hundred times later and it was really pushing me to my last nerve. I mean, he was an ancient ghost who was the Master of Time! Yet he acted as immature as Youngblood!

An aggravated sigh slipped out as I bent over to pick the green necklace up. It really did look kinda freaky. A large, green, glowing, and swirling half-sphere with a thin golden back hanging on a thin silver chain. Plus, it practically blended in with the grass and flowers and everything.

It would have been practically impossible to have found the thing unless it was right in front of you and you were looking in the right spot at the right time. Well, whatever. Even if I didn't know exactly how I found the necklace, I had still found it. And that was good enough for me.

"Alright, now, I just need to get to Amity," I muttered while slipping the necklace on before reaching for the cold feeling that was always inside my chest. A small smile worked it's way onto my face at the feeling of familiar blue rings swirling around me. Ah, it feels good to be a ghost again. Okay, now how to get to Amity... "Suppose I could try following the river, that's how I got here last time...

"Aaand, I'm talking to myself again... Perfect." Bending my knees and kicking off from the ground my body flew into the air, quickly climbing higher and higher until I spotted the small and winding river at the very edge of the forest. Man, this place really was huge. And I was right in the middle of a clear sky and plenty of open space. Hope this stupid necklace is actually working, or else I am so toast.

"Hope Eris is okay..." I muttered softly. I mean yeah, she's _Vlad's_ cat...but still! She's really sweet, and she's stood by me the whole time I've been stuck here. She's actually really good company for a cat. Ah man, now I really am thinking like the fruitloop! Not important. Important thing is to get to Amity, besides, Eris would be fine. Vlad would find her soon and everything would turn out for the-

"Skulker still has the animal translator...doesn't he?" I asked no one while still flying. Well...that would slightly deter my plans. As soon as Eris was found she would put up a fuss and Vlad would wonder what was wrong. Especially since she had been stuck in the study without me around.

And so, he would have Skulker use his translator to find out what was wrong. And Eris, being the kitten of chaos she was, would immediately rat me out and than Vlad would come chasing after me so as to lock me in the dungeon. Wonder if I still had time to turn back and hide Eris in my room or something. No, Vlad would look for me there first. Could hide her in _his _room. That would stump him for a little while. But than Eris might not get our for a long time and she might starve to death!

Dang it! Stupid Skulker and his...bleh-ness. Ngh. Alright Fenton, none of that matters. By the time Vlad realizes your missing, you'll be half-way to Amity Park and on your way to avoiding becoming Dan. That's all that matters. "Besides, what's he gonna do, follow me. I'll be _ages_ ahead of him. Besides, I'm already faster than he is!"

Heh, that was one thing that drove him nuts. How I was faster than he was. It was fun to be a speedy ghost. After all, that was one of my major fighting points, being able to fly at high speeds and avoid enemies and all that. Wonder if that was where I had an ice core and Vlad had a fire core.

Wasn't he saying something about that being the reason for our powers being so different. Him being better at offensive while I was better at defensive. At least, I think that's what he was talking about. Man, this would actually be a _good _time for one of those annoying flashbacks.

"Well, hopefully if this plan works, I won't have to worry about the flashbacks anymore." I really need to stop talking to myself. Than again...those flashbacks would be good for school and all that. Or at least, memorizing attack plans and stuff. Trust me, even if Lancer and Jazz were dead, they would still make sure I got an education. Crazy school-nuts.

_This is a very _very _bad idea..._ Oh damn. Just when I thought I had been imagining it, that stupid voice is back. Why is it bothering _me_? _One, I'm not stupid. Two, because I have no clue why. So there._

"And I thought I could be annoying and confusing," I muttered back, finding the need to actually talk to the thing. Right. This was just perfect. I was conversing with a voice that no one but me could hear and was just in my head. I really was starting to go insane.

_You're not going insane Danny, but you are gonna be in trouble if you keep trying to chase things that aren't there! Like that phrase uh...chasing, no...something to do with fans! _What the heck is he talking about? Chasing fans? That doesn't even make sense! Oh...oh wait...

"Um...do ya mean tilting at windmills?" At least, I think that's what the phrase was. Could be wrong, I mean, chasing fans was pretty...out there...

_That's it! _Wow...and I thought I was bad at stuff like that. But hey, titling at windmills was a phrase Sam used in her books and poetry all the time. She had told me and Tucker what it meant a thousand different times just because she used it that often in her writings. It meant something like chasing...what wasn't there... _Exactly!_

"Shut up you! They _are_ there! They wouldn't leave the graveyard without me. I know that much. I just have to find them is all..." I glared. At what, I had no freaking clue. But I do know that I glared. It was definitely aimed at the stupid little voice-thought-thing though, whatever _it_ was exactly.

_I am _not_ an it_.

"Sure hope you're not a she than," I shot back, hoping for _it_ to just shut up and leave me the heck alone. I mean, it was hard enough trying to figure out where the heck I was going. The river had ended a few miles back, along with the woods, and I was now following the lone pavement road that led to the high-way so I could try and get the turn-on right.

Oh crap, that last turn was supposed to be my turn-off towards the high-way too. Stupid distracting voice that won't shut up and leave me the hell alone.

_Ha!_

Shut up you! Ugh... "Just what do you want?" My eyes scanned for the next turn-off, hoping I wouldn't have to actually turn back since it had been a few miles since than. Ah, the downside of being a fast-flying ghost.

_I'm trying to tell you what I want! This is a bad idea! And by this I mean..._this! _Get it? _Wow, not only did that make little to no sense, butthe voice also sounded really weak. Like it was fighting to just argue with me, as confusing as _that_ sounds...

I growled as I saw nothing but a long stretch of road for a few more miles, deciding to just make a large loop in the air and double back to take the right turn-off while thinking on the words the voice had said. Just how would _this_ be a bad idea, I was saving everyone!

"I mean...think about it! If they're there...than I won't actually turn into Dan!" I could feel the smile that was now on my face while I flew faster towards Amity. I couldn't wait till I saw the others and showed them just how hard it was to actually use ghost powers. That would teach them about all the difficulties I had gone through myself. Ha! I was almost happy, until the stupid and smug voice wiped it off.

_And what if they're not there? What if you get there and wait and wait and they don't show up? You'll go insane! Vlad will end up finding you, dragging you back, and you'll just speed up your depression stage even faster. Hell, you're already experiencing denial by thinking that they'll even be there! _The voice was yelling by the end of his monologue or whatever. He also sounded superior and smug and evil. He sounded...Dan-like...

"Shut up! They _will _be there! They have too..." Damn voice. This _was_ a good plan! The _only _plan. This would prevent Dan and a destroyed world. Because they _will _be there. Sure it make take a few days, heck, even a few weeks! But I could wait for them, cause they _would _be there. Yeah, the plan was a bit shaky, but it was a good one!

_Right. Keep telling yourself that. I'm sure if you say it enough times, that it will actually be true _this _time._ Ass-whole of a voice. _The biggest of them all Danny-boy! _God, he even sounded smug in my head. Maybe I really am going as crazy as the fruitloop! Ugh! _Are you even listening to what I say-_

"Think, actually. I mean, you can't _actually _say anything. You just think it," I cut in. The need and instict to say something witty and assert myself in a fight was starting to kick in again. Me and my damn reflexes.

_And you say I'm an ass. That's not really the point though. What is, is that you're not listening to me! For two seconds, just two single and simple seconds, try to wrap it around you're brain that they _won't_ be there! If you actually go to Amity and go through with this, you'll lose what little you have le-_

"Listen here!" my body instinctively tensed up as soon as the words left my mouth as I almost slowed to a halt, "I have nothing else in my life to lose! I have nothing anymore! Vlad's just a stupid fruitloop who will get hurt if he tries to help me! The other ghosts in the Zone would be _glad_ to get rid of me, they _hate _my freaking guts! And Clockwork...he's better off without me too. All I do is cause trouble for him and Vlad..."

_Do you really think that? Do you honestly believe-_

"Yes," I hissed back, fists clenching, wishing so much I could punch that stupid voice. "I do. I have nothing to lose. So what's the point of caring anymore?" My boots practically kicked the air as I sped off, going faster than the first time I set out.

I actually had to grab the necklace to keep it from ripping off due to the sheer wind-speed. Tucking it under my suit I scanned the landscape again. I was still following the high-way, and I probably would be for a few more miles and hours. I mean, Amity was a two-day trip by car. Or something like it at least.

_So does that mean Vlad means nothing to you? _The voice asked softly, as if testing the waters to see if this phrase would be the one to set me off. It didn't make me go off yelling again, but it did make me think. I mean...what did Vlad really mean to me… Did he mean absolutely nothing? Or was he just the crazy arch-enemy I had always made him out to be. Or was he someone here to actually help me?

"...Vlad would be better off without me around." Without me, I won't kill him. This time...Dan really would...I really would... Vlad's better off far, _far_ away from me. Safer.

_ARE YOU AN IDIOT? I swear! That man cares for nothing else _but _you! Vlad would do anything he could to help you! If he knew what would actually happen, than he would never do it! He would find another way to heal you! But you're too damn stubborn to accept help from anyone! You can't even trust anyone! You've even accepted that Dan will form instead of fighting against it! You're such an idiot!_

"Well...at least this way Vlad will still live..." Stupid voice. Quit telling me what I already know. I already know all of that. I know that I should trust Vlad but can't. I know I can't trust _anyone_ after all I've been through the past two years. I know I'm stubborn. I know I'm a brat. I know it.

But still...even if telling Vlad might have a chance of keeping Dan from forming, it's still only a _chance_! I can't take that chance. I can't take any sort of chances! I have a duty to protect those who are precious to me, even if it sometimes hurts them, thinking I can't trust me. I have to protect them! _Not_ put them in danger!

_YOU REALLY ARE AN IDIOT! YOU'RE DAMN HERO-COMPLEX IS BIGGER THAN MINE EVER WAS! JUST TALK TO THE MAN YOU IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT HERO WITH A COMPLEX BIGGER THAN THE MOON! UGH!_

You could practically hear the voice panting and fighting to actually strangle me. Well... I already knew I had a pretty big hero-complex to begin with, so what exactly was the point of his argument exactly-

_Than let's try it this way, _the voice hissed. And I do mean hiss. Really, _really _hissed. Sounded kinda scary. _Get angry. Throw a tantrum. Be selfish for _once _since you got your powers! All you've done is help others and be the hero! Be the teenager for once! Be the one who needs help! Just stop being the damn hero all the time!_

…

"..."

…

"Who are you?"

_I'm... _the voice sounded really weak and shaky. Like the rants had taken a whole lot out of him. Kinda made me feel bad. I mean, yeah it was his own fault, but still...he didn't have to be _that _stubborn...

_I'm not really sure... What I do know though, is that I am me, and you are you. _Idiot. That's just a cop-out that only brings up more questions instead of answers. _That's life._

I almost laughed. It was that funny. It actually sounded like something I would say as Phantom. I managed to only let out a small smile and eye-roll instead of laughing though. Man...this whole no emotion thing was actually harder than I first thought it would be or whatever.

_I agree. Why don't you just scrap the plan and be you again. _Oh shut up- Hm... _What? What's wrong?_ Nothing...I just don't know what to actually call you...

_That's it? A name?_

"Well...it is kinda important to have a name and all you know..."

_Good point... _the voice muttered back. _Well...since I'm nothing but a ghost of a voice, I guess the name Phantom would work pretty well here. Besides, I think it sounds kinda cool, don't you? Kinda has that whole bad-boy vibe. Yeah, Phantom shall be my name! And ghost-hunting shall be my game! _In my mind I could see myself as Phantom, doing a ridiculous hero pose with a white sheet/cape flying out behind him/me in a non-existent breeze.

I could help it. I started cracking up in mid-flight. It was just too hilarious! I mean, he was crazier than the fruitloop! He was probably crazier even than-

_Destroyed buildings. Darkened and stormy sky. Thunder and lightening. Rubble falling all around them. Valerie attacking them. Wait...why is she attacking? I'm not the bad guy, someone else is! Why do they always blame me... It's not my fault! It's the ghosts fault for attacking me first! Wait...who was that? Who just blasted her. _

_Valerie? Wait...what are you doing? What are you doing to her? STOP! STOP IT! DON'T TOUCH HER! Save her. Don't let her get hurt. SAVE HER! YOU'RE THE HERO! Dan attacking. Pain. Lots of pain. It hurts...it hurts so much! No. No. That can't be me! I'm not like that...am I? I mean, I don't hurt... I protect...I protect... SAM! TUCKER! NO! NO NO NO NO! You can't do this! Screaming, fighting, kicking, scratching and biting. None of it was working. Can't beat him. He's too strong._

_Sam and Tucker. Safe...? Are they really safe? Medallion? Take the time medallion off? Why? Why should I? What good will that do me? It will save me you say? It will take me away from all this? Make it all just a bad dream? Yes...yes...I want all of this to be nothing more than bad dream. Just remove the medallion..._

_No! Stop it! YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T BE ME! I'M ME! DON'T DO THIS! You...you can't...don't! DON'T! DON'T STRAND ME HERE ALONE! I HATE BEING ALONE! I CAN'T STAND IT! DON'T DO THIS! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!_

"_Danny! Danny! GET A GRIP DANNY! IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S JUST A MEMORY!" _Not real...just a memory. No...it is real. It's what will happen. It's what did happened. It's real. And it's gonna happened again too. Stranded. Alone. Nowhere to go. Alone. Don't like being alone. Stop it. Quit messing around guys. Hey, you can't really be dead...right? I mean...you've always been there for me! So...you can't be gone...

Quit playing and come back! All of you...come back...

_DANNY! GET A HOLD OF YOURSLEF! YOU'RE FALLING! _Falling? Oh yeah...I am. What was up is now down, isn't it? Nothing is right anymore. Up is down and down is up, so if I'm going down, I'm really going up...right? It's all right. I'm a ghost, I won't die...will I? What happens when a half-ghost dies anyways? I wonder if I'll see my family again if I die... It would be perfect. We could all be together again. Hey...what's that green below me...or is it above me? It's swirling and confusing and scary...

Why does it seem familiar? It makes the burn on my hand hurt. It hurts... Make it stop. Please make it stop! It hurts! I don't want this pain anymore! I'm sick of feeling nothing but pain and fright...MAKE IT STOP!

_DANNY! DANIEL! SNAP OUT OF IT! WAKE UP! DANNY! DAN- _

Why are you being so loud? It's not like I'm hurt? Or...am I? Why am I here...and...

Who am I?

* * *

So...show of hands, who wants to kill me? *counts hands* Okay...right. Go hide. On it! TO THE BOMB SHELTER GUYS! THEY'RE AFTER US! *vanished in puff of smoke*


	10. Twins Abound

Sorry all, no time to explain anything right now, let's just say I'm kinda pressed for time here... *glances at closed/locked door* Okay, I'm in a tight spot, update with kinda take a while, it's killing me to get all this info to you guys right now. *strains ears for noise* It may take me a few days to get the correct story for just what happened after this part of the story, but rest assured, I will get it to you.

*curses under breath* Da- *holds breathe* Sorry all, not much time. Gotta go. I thought I lost that guy back at the last realm!

AAHG;LKDS

* * *

**Chapter Ten : Twins in the Ghost Zone?**

**x**

Oh my aching half-ghost head... It feels like it's about to be split right down the middle, like a...a pumpkin, or something just as equally messy and painful... What the heck was I doing before all of this pain hit anyways? It _felt_ like I had been flying at my top speed and rammed into a pretty tough brick wall...or a pretty hard stone wall.

Or even slammed into the street and straight down into the sewers below, _before_ they had been cleaned. Heck, it even felt like I got blasted by my parents with one of their new experimental weapons! The ones that were guaranteed to blast a ghost apart _molecule-by-molecule_. Sad to say that all of those things had happened to me at one point or another in my long career of ghost-hunting/fighting. And more.

Needless to say, none of those times had been the most pleasant of experiences in my half-dead life. Especially the coma I had gotten from ramming into that new brick wall they had just built while going at my top speed. Stupid Technus, what with his huge monologues and even bigger head. I mean, popping up beside me while I was flying top speed and screaming _Boo _at the top of his lungs was _not _that funny! Even if it did end up in the papers and on the nightly news!

It was damn stupid and pathetic of him! _Boo_, I mean...come on! Even the Box Ghost isn't that bad! At least _he_ uses the words _beware my doom _instead of an overrated _boo_! At least think of something a little more original Technus! Anything! You're supposed to me the _Master _of Technology and the Head of Research and Development for Time's sake! Not some annoying ghost you see on a kid's Saturday morning TV show or something...

Why does the thought of ramming into a brick wall at my top speed sound so dang familiar anyways? I mean, I've already had enough déjà vu or whatever to last a freaking life time and a half. The last thing I needed was even more of it, and what with all the recent flashbacks I've been having, I was getting more than enough... Hmph, I guess now would actually be a _good_ time for one of those stupid flashbacks though, find out just how I got here.

Flashbacks...ugh...what the heck had happened to me anyways... I mean, winding up in the Ghost Zone with no memory was not usually a good thing. The first time that had happened to me, I ended up waking up and finding out my whole town had been placed under some kind of sleep spell due to a huge ego-headed ghost who needed to wear some freaking clothes for a change. Hmph, stupid Nocturne... He tormented me for weeks with nightmares after I beat him. He was such a sore loser. At least the others take their defeat with a little more pride than that...

Well...except Vortex. He was pretty sore, and ticked, about me destroying his _art _and all that. As proven when he and Nocturne teamed up together to attack Amity Park... Jeez, that was one of the least pleasant ghost battles in my life, especially when Undergrowth turned up to help them! It was absolute mayhem! Nocturne had used his sleepwalkers to put everyone asleep, Vortex used his weather to destroy the town, and Undergrowth was using his plants to hold others hostage so I couldn't fight back.

Somehow Sam ended up starting a war between the three that let us capture them all though, mainly it was Vortex and Undergrowth fighting for some reason... It was really weird...I mean, really _really _weird. When we asked Sam how she managed to do it, she just said that the love triangle worked in our favor. Me and Tucker decided not to ask any more questions after that...

Okay Fenton, enough mind trails. Concentrate on exactly how you got here in the first-

_You were flying and than you fell. Into an open portal. Into the Ghost Zone. And than you ended up hitting a big huge slab of rock... _Oh...yeah...

My eyes finally finished refocusing themselves since I had first opened them, back when my head was splitting open with pain. I was now able to see the huge greenish ghost rock that I had landed on and was currently sprawled across. Apparently, ghost rock, pretty strong stuff. Wonder if it's stronger than that ghost weapon stuff Vlad was talking to me about that one time, well, more like ranting and raving really... The fruitloop said he would try, scratch that, he said that he _would_ take over the Ghost Zone with the stuff.

Even Mom and Dad has seemed pretty into the stuff when I let it slip at the dinner table, just to see if Vlad was seriously telling the truth. Ghosts couldn't touch it apparently or whatever... It was supposed to provide a barrier or force field or whatever that rejected all traces of ectoplasm in the body and bloodstream. At least, that was what they had said it did. What was the name of that thing anyways...Ecto...ranium? Well, whatever...

"How the heck did I fall into a natural ghost portal anyways," I mumbled under my breath, trying to get my mind to focus on the matter at hand before noticing just how bruised my chest was when I talked. Well, at least I knew where most of my pain was centered now. "Those portals are always forming and closing without warning," I kept muttering to myself while twisting my wrists and arms in small circles, trying to regain some form of feeling in them again.

Great, first I had a civil conversation with the fruitloop that is known as Vlad. Than I ended up hearing a freaking voice in my head that no one but me can hear, and something that Vlad claims not to know about. Than I ended up agreeing with said fruitloop. I talked to the man's cat like a person and I even comforted Skulker over the death of Sam! I really was going to go insane if things like this kept happening to me...

Whatever, my fleeing sanity could wait, I was more concerned with the portal opening right as I started to fall. I mean, it didn't feel like I fell onto the rock from too far up or whatever, it would have hurt a lot more if I had. And it would have hurt a _whole lot _more if I had hit the ground in the human realm. So the timing of the portal opening and catching me before I could become even more dead was really...weird. I mean, yeah I was lucky, but never _that _lucky...

Really, it was a matter of insane luck just to _find_ one of the stupid things, forget skill, you can never pinpoint or guess when one will open. Trust me, Tucker, Sam, and me tried it multiple times. Tucker ended up figuring it was just one of those roll of the dice kinda things. Sam had argued that it had to have had some kind of rhythm, as everything in the universe did, but we never found one. And neither had Frostbite for that matter, and his people had a freaking map!

So one opening up when you really need it...that was beyond strange. And I was a half-dead teen who fought ghosts for a living! I mean, it's almost impossible to find out when and where one will form without having something like the Infi-map on hand! It was even harder to create portals! Trust me, I tried a lot, and it never really worked out. Stupid powers. Stupid Dan and his show-offing...ness...

Ugh! _Concentrate_ Fenton! You're supposed to be figuring out how you even got into the Ghost Zone! Not going down memory road or whatever. Not that any of it really helped, I mean, the last thing I really remember happening was...

_Hey...what's that green below me...or is it above me? It's swirling and confusing and scary..._

_Why does it seem familiar? It makes the burn on my hand hurt. It hurts... Make it stop. Please make it stop! It hurts! I don't want this pain anymore! I'm sick of feeling nothing but pain and fright...MAKE IT STOP!_

Well, that certainly explained how I got into the Ghost Zone. What I don't get is why that rogue portal scared me so badly. Usually the Ghost Zone kinda made me more peaceful, mellowed me out a little bit. It felt, as cheesy as it sounds, like a second home to me. I never even told Sam or Tucker that, they'd just freak out over it. And Jazz would blame it on psychological problems, and if I ever did tell my parents they would blame ghosts. Which, thinking on it, they would be right for once.

The really strange thing though was why it made the burn on my hand start aching. I mean...that thing never hurt. Ever. It was just some stupid worthless thing I had gotten the day I got my ghost powers, like a scar or something. It didn't really hurt or anything...it was just...a reminder. A reminder of how I died... And a reminder of how out-there my parents are sometimes...I mean really...Who puts an on button on the inside of a freaking ghost portal!

A deep sigh left my lungs and flew out my mouth, which ended up lifting a few of my bangs up. Great, more distractions, what I really needed to do was try to think back further. To try and remember just why I was freaking out so bad in the first place. And I couldn't think of anything! I mean, it was like my mind was drawing a blank, either that or it just blocking everything out. Like it did when I had first woken up at Vlad's place... Was that really only a few days ago?

The most I could seem to remember anymore though was maybe a few flashes of what looked like Amity Park. Or at least someplace very similar to it. Than maybe a smell of something that was burning and smoking. A quick glimpse of something black and white against a gray, stormy sky. A sharp, lethal tug from the past...

And a high-pitched cackle. Some kind of evil laugh that would send chills down even Vlad's spine. And...a mirror? Well...that made _so _much sense. Stupid useless flashbacks that didn't make any sense whatsoever, I mean, what was the _point_ of these flashbacks anyways! They made no sense half the time and they were more troublesome than good! I didn't even understand how they worked! It was like they had a mind of their own and just popped up at the time I needed them least or something.

I mean, yeah, I get the whole thinking back to memories and the past and stuff. That makes sense at least. I've relived memories. I've had to from fighting all these ghosts for so long. You have to memorize their strategies and fighting styles if you wanna survive longer than a few battles. Luck could only get you so far, and I had learned that pretty quickly. But these things... These flashbacks...

It's like, when I have a flashback, everything from the present moment just kinda fades and slips away. For that brief amount of time that the flashback lasts, I'm experiencing all the things that I did in the flashback. Pain from all the hits and punches I had taken, emotions that I had felt at the time, and everything else. It was really...freaky. Like... I just don't know how to describe it.

The really frustrating thing was that everyone else but me probably had a description or explanation for it... Like Jazz, she would probably spew a bunch of psycho-mumbo-jumbo about me being overworked from all my ghost-fighting and how my mind was coming up with delusions in order to compensate for the lack of rest I was getting. She would also spew something about me not taking enough time out for my well-being and all that. Ugh, I can actually _hear_ her voice and her lecturing me about all of it too...

Sam would probably just explain my flashbacks in some kind of morbid goth poem, haiku, or song of hers. Heck, she might even use one of her weird mythology stories, ones that were as equally morbid and scary knowing her. Don't get me wrong, she's a great friend and all, but she can be a little spooky at times. Especially when she dragged me and Tucker to the desert for the Parry-That-Shall-Never-Be-Spoken-Of-Again.

Speaking of the techno-geek, he would most likely go into a bunch of ramblings about how the mind can sometimes be rewired for experiencing nothing but the past instead of the present, or how the mind was more of a computer than a living thing, something he and Sam frequently fought over. That or he would just list a bunch of video games and movies that my situation sounded like. No, really, he had done that before. Multiple times. Last time it happened Sam had hit him over the head for it.

Mom and Dad would, of course, blame it all on ghosts the second I told them what was happening to me. They would than hook me up to some kind of mind scanner that picked up the brainwaves of ghosts, and me being half-ghost, would cause it to go off. Jazz would than scream Ghost Envy the second _they _screamed ghosts. They would also run a bunch of tests on me to see just what was wrong with me, and then, being the half-dead teen that I was, I would have to either sabotage their tests and results or just hide until it all blew over.

If I had the guts and confidence to confide in Lancer then it probably wouldn't turn out any better. He would just either send me to the nurse, call my parents to have me taken to the hospital, or, most likely, he would quote some dead dude or whatever. And Valerie would...actually...Valerie would put the blame on Ghosts too. No doubt about that. And, knowing her, she would blame the ghost she hated most – Phantom. Which, since Phantom is me, would be pretty bad in the end.

Telling Vlad would be pretty stupid of me too. He would probably be torn between thinking it might be something to do with my ghost-half, or with thinking it was psychological like Jazz would think. He would than use the information to _further his agenda _as he put it. Then he would use a bunch of huge words that I didn't know just to spite me. Stupid fruitloop and his old-man vocabulary...

Dash and the other A-List jocks...well, they would just call me crazy, a freak, or insane. Or all of the above actually. That is, if they cared enough to bother listening to me for more than a few seconds before shoving me into my locker or the dirty gym-clothes hamper. The ghosts in the Zone...well...they'd all pretty much think I was weirder than before. If a half-ghost teen could be any weirder. Except Frostbite, nothing I did seemed to get him to stop worshiping me...

The point was, everyone had an explanation for these weird flashbacks but me. And they weren't even like flashbacks, they were more like...visions? Like something I experienced in the moment when it happened. It was...confusing, to say the very least... Ugh.

I think I felt another headache coming on.

I shook my head, actually trying to shake the thoughts away, before I gathered enough strength back to actually lift my head up and look around my surroundings. And, surprise surprise, I found out that I really was stranded in the middle of the Ghost Zone. Basically alone. Well, I guess the voice in my head sorta counted...maybe.

Well, I am now stranded in the Ghost Zone, am experiencing multiple flashback-things, and have no clue where I am, but, this could be a slight blessing in disguise, in the end anyways. I could just use my knowledge of the Ghost Zone to find out where I am, and than plot a course to get to Amity Park and the Fenton Portal. I mean, it couldn't be all that-

_ARE YOU ISANE? YOU JUST HAD A FREAK-OUT AND FELL THROUGH A PORTAL AND HUNDREDS OF FEET AND LANDED ON GHOSTLY ROCK AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS YOUR STUPID OBSESSION OF DENIAL? _

I hummed to myself softly once the monologue of the inner voice was done. I could also hear some pretty heavy breathing going on from the inside of my head. Great. Just great, I was getting more and more insane, what with me imagining the voice breathing and all that. Not to mention that he was _mad_.

_Try furious you idiot of an idiot! IDIOT! _Rolling my eyes I tuned out the swearing and other various slanders to my name, instead deciding to push myself up off this stupid hunk of rock. It turned out harder than I thought it would be, what with all the bruises this stupid heap of ghostly rock had done to me. I really hate this rock. It seemed like every time I came to the Ghost Zone, I was thrown into some form of a rock.

I managed to get to my knees before any strength I had accumulated left me, leaving me leaning against the hunk of rock that loomed up behind me, slightly gasping for breath. Stupid rock, it seemed really familiar too... Had I been thrown into this rock before? Or blasted into it by something. Hearing the voice still cussing me out, I decided to check out my surroundings. I mean, I had to be somewhere familiar.

It was after a few minutes of wincing from my still-sore neck that I noticed that I wasn't as stranded as I first thought I had been. I was on a rock that was floating to a very familiar Ghost Zone monument. Familiar to both me and every other ghost in the Zone. And it wasn't a monument that conveyed happy and positive feelings. More like a monument that conveyed death, darkness, and major fright. And all those other wonderful feelings.

The Castle of Pariah Dark... Cold...why is it so freezing cold. I mean, ever since I got my ice powers, I hardly even felt the cold anymore! Not unless I was in my human form or extremely weakened... And I was still in ghost-mode, not to mention I wasn't that weakened. Just a little sore from crashing into a pretty big rock. So...why was I freezing cold?

And why is it suddenly dark? So, so dark... What? Why the hell am I suddenly scared? It's just Pariah-freaking-Dark! I beat him almost 3 or so years ago! Back near when I first had my powers! Heck, that was before I even had my _ice_ powers or anything! I was fine back than! So...so why am I still so scared of him... Still? Was I scared of him...before...

"_No... Dad, wait! I'm sorry! Please do not do this to me! Please! I will change! Just do not leave me here alone! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!" My voice started cracking as I screamed into the sky while hugging my arms and upper body, trying to suppress the cold that filled and fed on my core. He was actually leaving me here... He knew that I was not strong enough to survive in this place on my own!_

_The Forest of Death was called that name for such a reason! Daddy...please...come back! Do not leave me here by myself! What did I do wrong? Was I too childish? I will mature than! Was I too stupid a child? Than I shall get smarter! Was I too kind a prince? Then you can teach me to become meaner! Did I do something wrong while living there? If I did, than tell me what it was so I can fix it for you! _

_Daddy...what happened to Uncle? Why is he not here to help me out of this mess like he always does for me? Did you tell him what you were planning to do to me? Did you tell him that you stranded me here, in the Forest of Death? Did he agree to it? Did he fight back? If he did, what did you do to him? _

_Daddy...where is brother at? Did you let him know that you threw me away? Does he know that I will not be able to sneak out with him at night anymore? Does he know that I will not be able to play with him later today like we promised? Does he know what you did to me?_

_Daddy...where is everyone? Where are they? Where is Mommy at? Is Auntie still there? What about Clockwork? Did he not see you doing this to me? Did he not stop you? Where are they all? Why are none of them helping me? This cannot be...they cannot all have left me, right? _

_I shivered as the cold started wrapping around me, freezing me from the inside of my core and out. I started to panic as white and bony arms, picked clean from the flesh that once covered them, were rising out from the graves in front of me, clambering for fresh blood. Fresh meat. A few had already crawled out of their graves and were staring at me, trying to walk without falling back down to the ground. _

_Meanwhile, all the hideous ghouls who were not fit to live in the Zone and had hidden in the forest all this time, they were all descending down upon the place where I hid. Why did Daddy abandon me here? He knows I cannot fly away like the others are able too. I am a defect like he has always said. _

_But..._he_ could not have abandoned me too, right? I mean...not him... Not Phantom. Not my brother... Not my-_

_DANNY! CALM DOWN! DON'T THINK OF PARIAH DARK OR THE FOREST! JUST CONCENTRATE ON SOMETHING ELSE! ANYTHING! YOU HAVE TOO! YOU CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE! CONCENTRATE ON MY VOICE! ONLY ON ME! ANYTHING BUT PARIAH! ANYTHING BUT THE FOREST! **ANYTHING!**_

Shut up Phantom...you're too freaking loud. You're way too loud! I can't think about anything with you screaming your head off like that...so stop being so loud... I wish I could see that stupid voice. Than he wouldn't be screaming and annoying me, than I wouldn't be so alone as I felt... Than everything would be fine. Nothing would go wrong. So...why can't I see that voice again?

Wait a minute... He said that I was me and he was he, but what if he was me and I was him?

My eyes closed briefly as I concentrated on pushing away the dark and fear of my heart. Just for a few seconds, I pushed everything away. I pushed it all away and concentrated on nothing but the gentle tugging of my ghost powers. Nothing but the icy chill of my core, pulsing gently inside me. I thought of my mind and body being pulled in two different ways, being able to be here and yet there all at the same time.

I concentrated on creating a clone.

But this time, I did something a little different than usual. Instead of a clone connected to my conscious and body, instead of having me be the clone and me at the same time, I did something else. I imagined that weird and irritable inner voice being connected to the clone, but not to me. I concentrated on giving the voice a body, the body of the clone...

I opened my eyes as two blueish white circles appeared in the middle of the air in front of me. They quickly rose to reveal a second me. Another Phantom. The only difference was that this one was waving his hands up and down, looking back-and-forth, and just generally freaking out. I have to admit though, seeing another person finally calmed me down, even if it wasn't really anyone but an extent of myself, or whatever it exactly was.

"Why are you freaking out so much?" I muttered, wondering what the inner voice, no, what _Phantom _would do now. It took a few seconds for the ghost in front of me to stop waving his arms around, and it took a few more seconds for him to realize he actually had a body. After that he kinda mellowed out.

"Um...I thought you were having another freak-out..." Phantom muttered back, as if he was even more worried that I _wasn't _having one. Wow, what a way to build self-esteem.

"One, freak-out isn't really a good description. Two, what the heck are you. You can't be just an inner voice or delusion if I managed to clone you, or whatever I did..." A blank stare was all I got in return. That kinda irritated me. Don't know why, just did. "Look, I don't have time for this. I gotta get to Amity Park and see the others-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, a very painful sensation was spreading from my head and down from there. It felt like someone had punched me on the top of my head with quite a bit of force. Glancing up at Phantom and seeing his fist clenched and eyes narrowed, I figured that was one mystery solved.

"You. Are. An. Idiot." Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I leaned back against the slab of rock I was on before rubbing my head without really caring. I mean, what more could he do to me? He could hit me all he wanted to, it wouldn't really hurt all that much. And nothing he said would really tear me apart anymore than losing everyone of my loved ones did. So, what was there to worry about? "Not only are you an idiot, you are a, a, a, a BIG idiot!"

Wow. Just...just wow. I suppose I could always worry about him coming up with a lame retort like that.

"Is that the best you actually got? A big idiot? That's pathetic!" I was about to respond with some more comebacks that I thought were quite witty, until I felt something weird happen to my eyes. It was like...they got dimmer. I could still see fine and everything, it was just...

Like, use to, everything would kinda have this green tint to it, like, green stuff was brighter. Especially ectoplasm and ghosts and things. Brighter than it was to a human or anything anyways. But now...it took on more of a blue tint. Like everything was bluer than it was before. And that only happened when I used my ice powers or that one time when...

"Hey? Why did your eyes change? Ohmyghost! Did you hit your head and get a concussion?" I tuned out the rest of the _freak-out _as I thought about something. Did Phantom just say oh-my-_ghost_? Wow...just...wow... He was even worse than me and Tucker combined. My tendency to freak-out over a variety of things and Tucker's awful sense of humor. Oh jeez, now even I'm worried about what I've created.

A high-pitched and vengeance-reeking cackle was all it took to interrupt both my musing and Phantom's freak-out.

"Well well, if it isn't the twin dipsticks," Both of us, at the same exact time mind you, looked straight up to see a flaming-haired menace that I really didn't want to see just than. I mean, I dealt with ghosts on a day-to-day basis for the past three years, or close to it anyways. Couldn't they give me just a few days break? I mean, I had just lost every single of my loved ones and my home.

Would nothing get them to stop annoying me? I mean! For God's sakes people! I'm still just a teenager! I shouldn't have to put up with all this crap! I mean, come on! Give a halfa a break here!

"Hullo Ember, come to embarrass yourself again? I'm really not in the mood if you have, maybe you should just go get beat up by another ghost that's more powerful than you. Say, oh, I don't know, Youngblood?" I really hate myself sometimes. I really do. I mean, I don't mean to be a snarky little bastard or anything! I just can't help it... Personally, I blame Vlad and his bad influence or whatever.

"No thanks baby-pop," Ugh, I hate that insult. I mean...how old was she anyways? Eighty? "How about instead I wail on you and your twin dipstick," Ember chuckled a pretty evil cackle, right up there with mine and Vlad's. Heck, it might have even beat Pariah's! There was something strange though...her laugh...it sounded kinda watery for some reason. Like she had just been crying, which didn't make much sense. Wait...

"Twin?" Both me and Phantom voiced at the same time before looking at each other at the same time. Than we both looked back at Ember. Twin? Where the heck had that come from? I mean, she couldn't have used the word clone or whatever? I know it's kinda weird, but the word twin...it...kinda made me...mad? No...

It was more like...it made me feel sad, angry, hurt, betrayed. Yeah, betrayed. Trust me, it's a pretty sucky feeling to feel. I mean, thinking how Vlad deals with his betrayal, by swearing to kill the person and reap his vengeance and all that, I really didn't want to have to deal with it. So, twin...not a good word to use around me.

Me and Phantom quickly noticed how Ember looked a little put off and was raising her eyebrow at us by how we both looked at each other before looking back at her, and just kept staring in confusion and annoyance. As if perfectly in-sync or something. I just shrugged it off. Honestly, nothing was that surprising to me anymore.

Ember eventually shook off whatever weirdness she thought we had, because she want back to doing that annoying smirk that made me want to hit her. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was brought up pretty decently, so I usually I hated fighting girls, but she was just so _annoying _sometimes! And she loved to rub _everything_ in! I mean, even if it was something _completely _stupid and pointless, she would rub it in! Or announce it to the heaves or something!

Really, we don't all care if you get a new guitar or scrunchie! NONE OF US CARE! It's just annoying! And she ALWAYS speaks as if she's some punker rock chick from the fifties. And hey, she might have been, but that's no reason to not catch up on the times! I mean, look at Skulker. Even he's better than that! Heck, _Walker _is better than her!

She can't even think of good songs or song lyrics! I mean, we get it already! Remember your name! Think of some new lyrics or get some new inspiration or _something_ you big, dumb, blue bi-

"Hello misplaced aggression," Ember muttered before slowly flicking the control wheel on her guitar to a setting I was very familiar with. One that cause a lot of annoyance and pain-

Wait... I knew those words. I knew that mutter. I knew that narrowed-eye look. And I _really_ knew that posture of tense secrets and breaking sanity. And I _definitely_ knew that we were in big trouble. Justified anger was one thing. I was okay with justified anger, I mean, heck, it's _justified_!

Misplaced anger however? That was a whole different thing that I wanted nothing to do with. I don't think Phantom did either, judging by the way he seemed to pale, quite a bit. I guess that falls into the stupid quote or phrase or whatever. Now what was it? Uh...

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, or a woman's wrath? Well, Hell may not know that fury, but a guy sure as heck did. A sudden angry strumming of a guitar caught both mine and Phantom's attention as we jumped into the air, intent on getting away from the sudden green shock/sound-wave coming straight towards us. Oh shi-

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Why aren't you flying, do you want to get hit?" Phantom shouted down to me while hovering about twenty feet up in the air, looking like he didn't want to come back down either. And hey, who could blame him? If I was him, which I kinda was, I wouldn't wanna come back down either, but...

"Well, I would, if I _could_ fly right now," I shouted back up, not even bothering to notice how calm, dead, and lifeless my voice sounded, or how many dead puns that made for today. I was instead wondering how else I could dodge Ember's attacks besides flying, which was an option not available right now.

"You're kidding!" I heard Phantom shout before groaning to himself with his head in his hands as I had to doge another sound blast, "This is like that stupid identity crisis all over again!"

"Be quiet Phantom, you're voice is annoying." I went back to concentrating on Ember as I jumped backwards to dodge some flying debris and more sound waves. She looked pretty pissed off, so I guess whatever got her mad was making her mad enough for her aim to be off. Thankfully. So that only really left the concern of dodging the debris of rocks that she was hitting instead of us.

Hey, better the rocks and ground than us. At least, in my humble and ever so right opinion anyways. A quick glance up showed that Phantom was debating whether to come down and save me or not and Ember was trying to decide which ghost-boy to hit. Well, one good thing came out of Phantom being there.

He would make a great distraction.

"Hey Ember, that Phantom up there thinks Skulker should dump you cause all you do is complain about men!" Heartless? Yes. Cruel? Very much so. Pointless? Nope. While Ember's hair suddenly went inferno with red hightlights, and Phantom glared at me in pure hatred before dodging a very angry rocker's blasts, I was thinking.

Ember would never get into a fight with me, or uh, in this case, us, without a good reason. A _very_ good reason. She knew she was weaker than me without at least a hundred people chanting her name. So the only reason why she would attack us would be if her emotions were in the extreme. Meaning she was either really really mad, or really really sad.

Wait...

"You are so dead Danny!" Phantom yelled down while narrowly dodging another blast, this one red, from Ember, who's eyes suddenly looked glossy as she was aiming. Hm...now why would her eyes look glossy. And why...would she have tear streaks? Heh, mystery solved.

"One, I'm already half-dead, so not much you can do there," I smirked at Phantom as he glared at me again and than turned my gaze to Ember. If this works, we're saved, if not, I really am gonna lose the other half of my life. "Hey Ember, write any new songs about heartache? Like a guy breaking up with a girl? Anything like that?"

I paused as I saw Ember's face show a quick look of agony before growing even madder as Phantom flew above her, viciously making gestures for me to shut up and not say anything else. Heh, as if I would actually listen. "Actually, what I should really be asking, is why are you crying?"

"You-!" I couldn't tell who was angrier at this point. Ember for being egged on, or Phantom for me egging her on. I do know one thing though. I was definitely right in my theory. The bad part however was that another blast from her guitar was heading right towards me. And I was out of room to dodge it.

"Remind me to kill you later," Phantom muttered while struggling to hoist me in the air before the blast hit us, which he did just in time. I resisted the natural urge to kick and be let down. Well, know I knew why Sam and Tucker always hated it when I had to hold them under the arms like this. It was maddening.

Ignoring the feeling of not being able to control where I flew, I instead concentrated on a plan to get Ember to stop beating on us, until Phantom wormed his way into my thoughts, again. _You are an idiot! _The funny part was, I don't even think he meant to tell me that. He was just thinking to himself, fiercely or whatever.

"It's not my fault," I muttered softly and calmly, I think Phantom must have been startled I commented to his thoughts since he almost got hit by the next blast. I however, was talking as if I wasn't about to get blasted into oblivion. "It's her's," here I raised my voice to where Ember could hear it, "I mean, if she's that angry, she's either pregnant or been dumped."

"You are the biggest idiot I have ever met," Phantom muttered while Ember seemed to roar with rage, her hair now a full and complete fiery red. Okay, maybe that was a bit too far to push her. But...hey, can't make a cake without cracking a few eggshells. Wow...that was so lame. I would have lamented on it some more, had not Phantom dropped me. Thankfully I was only a few feet from the ground and was able to land without getting hurt too badly.

Phantom than threw up a shield to block Ember's next attack, which was powerful enough to send cracks throughout the shield. Wow, hell hath no fury like a woman's wrath indeed. Now that we were relativity safe, it was time to continue on with my plan. Heh, manipulating a ghost with their own emotions to do what I want...Vlad would indeed be proud of me.

"You know, Skulker did seem rather upset today when I saw him," I turned towards Phantom, making it look like I was talking to him instead of Ember, like I really was. "And now seeing Ember I think I know why... So, Ember, exactly why did the two of you break-up?"

The only warning I got before Phantom started choking me was a twitch above his eye. "You. Are. Dead." Wow, he sounded pretty mad. I would have responded, head not I suddenly been hit in the head. Quite hard. I was than kicked in the chest, and because of my poor balance due to Phantom's attack and the hit in the head, I was thrown back towards the slab of rock, slamming into it. Hard. Slowly sliding down the side I clutched my head, hoping the pain would go away sooner rather than later.

"That hurt," I muttered softly while looking up through glassed eyes. Hey, even though I was trying to hide my emotions, I was still human. Or, half-human anyways. I still felt pain, and let me say this, that was pretty painful. Phantom looked torn between saying I got what I deserved and beating Ember up himself.

"Me and Skulker have been at odds for months... We broke it off, mutually, a few days back. I guess it just didn't really sink in till now though..." Me and Phantom both looked up at Ember, who seemed to sag towards the ground as she clutched her guitar with one hand. The wires looked to be cutting into her skin where she was clutching it so tightly.

"We knew we weren't meant for each other, really. We were just fooling around but...it still...it still hurts, ya know? Before this we were sorta friends. So, it hurt even more when we ended it..." Damn it. You know it's bad when you start empathizing with a ghost! I mean...the way she talked and acted...she was like I was when me and Sam broke it off after a few dates...

I looked over at Phantom to see him sigh in annoyance before scratching the back of his head slowly, as if torn on what to do. I shared the feeling. I mean, it's kinda hard to beat her up now, what with her crying and looking so pathetic. We both watched as Ember stumbled to her feet before mumbling some sort of lame excuse for the tears in her eyes.

Well, at least she didn't use the old dust in the eye excuse. That would have just been too obvious. _Oh great...what are we __supposed to do now... _My eyes trailed over to Phantom, who looked a few seconds from breaking down and comforting the girl who just tried to kill us. Well, might as well as just go with it.

"Truce?" I spoke up. Phantom locked eyes with me before smirking in amusement and nodding his head. He than stuck his hand out in front of Ember, slightly startling her, before speaking in a calm and dorky voice.

"Truce?" Ember simply raised an eyebrow before looking at him and than glancing over at me. "Hey," Phantom said, drawing attention back to him, "Fighting isn't going to help any of us right now. So, what do ya say, truce?" It was kinda funny to see Ember slightly glare at the extended hand one more time before lightly shaking it.

"Truce," she muttered, as if she was still choked up from crying over Skulker and their break-up, which, she probably was. Phantom smiled before lightly hovering off the ground and glancing back over at me again.

"Guess we should probably get out of here than, being near this place makes me...anxious..." Phantom murmured the last part. That was wrong though. He might have felt anxious but I felt...scared. Scared and hopeless. I think he might have sensed that since he was trying to get us all away from there as fast as possible.

God what was wrong with me lately...

"Well...we could go back to my place for a little while, if only so I can find out why you two are acting as if you're two separate dipsticks instead of just one," Ember smirked, looking like her old cocky self while I took the time to stand up and brush myself off from where I had dust all over my suit. And a few tears from the rocks that had hit me.

"Ha ha," I muttered while Phantom grimaced. Neither of us were really looking forward to the questions Ember would ask us. Me because I didn't wanna appear freakish, well, more freakish than only being a halfa, and Phantom because... Well, probably because he thought Ember would think us crazy too.

Ember just smirked before rising into the air like Phantom had done. "Alright dipsticks, follow me and try to keep up." Phantom smirked back while I just rolled my eyes. She knew that I could out fly her easily if I wanted to. If I could, ya know, actually fly and all that.

"Up we go." Again, I resisted the urge to fight to be let go of as Phantom lifted me into the air. Note to self, never pick anyone up off the ground unless emergency. It's really annoying. Stupid Phantom... "You know...Skulker was a pretty big idiot if he actually let you get away."

Scratch that. He's a really big idiot. I mean...he was flirting, _flirting _with _Ember_! Could it get any worse? "Oh? Is that your way of flirting?" Ember lowered her voice while smiling cheekily and fluttering her eyelashes. Oh no...it could get worse indeed. She could start flirting back...

"Maybe. Than again, I wouldn't really wanna flirt with you right now, you might get the wrong impression and think I was a rebound guy!" Oh. My. God. They were _flirting_! Enemies don't _flirt_! They fight! _Fight_! Not...not..._this_!

"_I just don't get what you see in her Phantom...I mean, she's so...icky!" I stuck out my tongue and closed my eyes to emphasis my point. I mean, how could he like _Ember_! It was just so messed up!_

"_Hey, you're the same age as me, I don't get why you _don't _like her. I mean...she's hot, talented, and she can kick your ass any day of the week," Phantom smirked back, egging me on to try and fight back. What a liar! I'm not the one who got beaten by her in the first place!_

"_Yeah right! You were the one who got beaten by her first, not me!"_

"_I didn't lose! I just couldn't bring myself to hit a girl..." Phantom muttered, he looked like he was trying to find another excuse for losing besides the usual couldn't-hit-a-girl one that he used for every other fight he lost with a girl._

"_Uncle says it's wrong to hit a girl unless it's in a battle and following the codes of conduct. Than it's alright." I muttered back. Hmph, as if _he_ was afraid to hit a girl. I mean, he and Sam got into fights all the time! And I was the one to usually break them up! _

"_Yeah well...Uncle's a bit of a loony," Phantom muttered back, "Just like Andrew. He's as weird as they get. I mean, all he does is sit inside and read all day-"_

"_Andrew is _not _a loony! There's nothing wrong with reading! He learns about our history and tends to the library!" I yelled back. I hated when he insulted my friends. It was just mean! I didn't insult his!_

"_Oh~" ...What did he mean, oh...? "I didn't know you felt that way about our dear Andrew...maybe I should tell him just how you feel..." I felt myself pale without really knowing why. I mean, what would he tell him? I treasured him as a close and dear friend? He already knew that...at least...I hope he did._

"_Do your worst," I muttered back while glaring at him. My insane friend and brother. No...he wasn't just my friend and brother...he was my-_

"-nny? Danny? Are you okay?" I rapidly blinked my eyes before glancing up at Phantom, who was looking down at me in concern, even Ember looked a little confused as to why I had spaced out. Well...at least that answered the question of whether the flashbacks had stopped or not.

The answer being not.

"Nothing. Just...spacing out I guess," I muttered back, not even working to have my voice sound lifeless. "Trying to figure out why you have such a huge crush on Ember and why you're flirting with her." I'm so evil sometimes. I wonder if I've always been like this and just haven't noticed it.

"Wha-? I do not!" Liar.

"Liar." Phantom started swearing and insulting me as he tried to prove just how wrong I was to think he actually had the hots for Ember. His words, not mine. Again, it was pretty obvious after that. I glanced over at Ember, wanting to know if she saw the obvious way Phantom liked her, before I noticed something. She wasn't watching Phantom. She was watching me.

"Why is the blue-eyed one so...lifeless?" Wow...that was pretty rich, coming from a ghost. It got Phantom to shut up though, so I guess I should at least be kind enough to give her an answer back, otherwise it wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me.

"Because life is a bitch," I muttered while letting out a bitter smirk and staring at the sky, or at least, what I thought was the sky. There was really no end to the Ghost Zone. At least...I didn't think there was. No one ever really did any studies on the Ghost Zone. Heck, even Mom and Dad, the world's leading ghost experts, didn't know a thing about the Ghost Zone.

"Did you loose your manners along with your emotions?" Phantom yelled down at me. Oh yeah, I had just said something quite rude to his crush, I guess I could see why he was mad with me.

"Most likely. I mean, if I really have lost my emotions, than I lost the ability to care what people think about me. And that's usually what manners are for. To get people to have a better opinion of you. So yeah, my manners are just as gone as my emotions." I don't know who looked more shocked. Phantom, me, or Ember. I mean, it _was_ pretty shocking, to here something like that coming from me...

I've been spending too much time around Vlad or something...

Phantom soon got over his shocked state as he started cursing me out again. I just tuned him out while thinking of my family. Again. I was getting worse...was getting more like Dan. But soon...soon I wouldn't have to act like some emotionless bastard! I mean, all I had to do was see them. Just one glimpse. And then...then everything would go back to normal. It had too... It just had too...

"Well, here we are," Both me and Phantom looked up at the door in front of us, it looked like one you would see in an condemned apartment building or something. "Come on in...I guess..." Ember muttered the last part, as if having us in her home was the last thing she wanted. What a gracious host.

"Man Danny...you're heavy," Phantom complained before dropping me on the floor of Ember's lair...or at least, it was supposed to be. It looked more like an apartment belonging to an aspiring rock artist, which, in retrospect, it kinda was. I turned around to look as Phantom leaned against the wall before collapsing against it and sinking to the floor. Ember just rolled her eyes before closing the door behind her, not even bothering to lock it.

Cocky much?

"Maybe you're just weak," I muttered back, addressing Phantom's earlier complaining. I mean really, when I was in ghost-form, I was pretty light. I knew that for a fact from when Sam and Tucker had to carry me home on numerous occasions. Phantom opened his mouth ready to mutter something back before Ember interrupted him with a glare.

"Okay, what happened. It's like there's two of you instead of one. And I know clones don't act like this. I also know neither of you are Amorpho, he's supposed to be in France right now, messing with the locals or whatever." Hm, didn't think he would go to France. More power to him than, those French can get pretty nasty if he insults them too much.

Phantom just sighed in annoyance before looking over at me for some form of help. Remembering how he cussed me out, insulted my weight, and the recent flashback I had, I just raised my hands with palms flat and facing him, "No way dude, it's all you."

"Thanks," Phantom muttered back sullenly before looking back at Ember and opening his mouth before closing it again. It looked as if he had no clue where to start, neither did I for that matter. "It's a long story Ember..."

"I think I got the time," Ember smirked before walking into the small living area and plopping down onto one of her plush chairs. I just smirked over at Phantom as he frowned and looked even more worn out. All the more power to him.

"Wonderful...okay...well...were to start I guess..."

"The Fenton Ghost Catcher?" I voiced from where I had walked into the living room, looking at the books she had. Ember seemed to be ready to tear me away from there before Phantom spoke up again.

"I guess that's just as good a place as any... Alright Ember," Phantom sighed before settling back against his wall. "About two years or so ago, back around the time when we, err, Danny, first got his powers, there was an incident with Technus and and invention his parents had built..."

* * *

Okay, I know you might be confused - *yells back to others* But it will all make sense here shortly. And I know Danny doesn't sound like himself, but there are all good reasons for what's going on. Shi- I'M COMING! ARGH! *opens window* Alright all, I"ll be back, have to turn off the laptop now. Hope to hear from you all soon! *prepares to jump from window*

Shi- WHERE'S THE ROPE? KIT!


	11. Calm Down, it's not a chapter but a note

Okay, this is just to let you guys know that I am going back and re-doing certain parts of the story, and also making new chapters. So...I just wanted to let you guys know that I was /not/ giving this up, I just hit a rough patch in my life. So...yeah...

That all? *nods* Pretty sure it is. Give me a week and when you see a new chapter you'll know that the story is done being updated an all... Right. Also, one more thing, if you love the movie Tangled, go read Family Life, it's wonderful. And if you love Fairy Tail, you HAVE TO READ LION'S PRIDE! BY WILD RHOV! Actually...read all her stories...they are all so amazing.

Oh yeah, someone guess about what's going on, and it was a really good guess. You can read it in the reviews. They were close, but still long. Just...if you ever read my original ghost king story on DeviantART, then you'll have a slightly better idea of what's going on. The name is dannyandsam4ever over on the site... So I'm curious dear readers, can any of you guess just what I am up to? Hm...?

*cackles* Oh gosh...this is gonna be fu~n...

Ja Na, readers! Seeya in about a week!


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